Class of 1928
You are now only four months away from the BIG TENTH; so close, in fact, that the Reunion Committee has done the preliminary work and is ready to disclose the interesting program which it has arranged. At the request of President JackPhelan, your scribe came to Needham, Mass., to enjoy the Phelan hospitality and help organize certain phases of the reunion. The work took all day Sunday and was completed just before Larry Martin,Frank Thurston, and a couple of very at- tractive young ladies arrived for dinner. Speaking of young ladies, we have never seen as attractive a little girl as Martha Phelan, age four.
The reunion dates, which you should mark off now on your calendar, are June 17-20. As at our Fifth, there will be a preliminary gathering Thursday night, June 16, of those who are able to get there, with beer on tap for all comers. You Boston men and your wives might just as well come up Thursday night, because June 17 is a holiday (Bunker Hill Day), and it does not cost any more to occupy your dormitory room on Thursday.
Friday, June 17, the first full day of the Tremendous Tenth, will find 'aBers from all over the country registering and receiving their costumes. (Jud Whitehead of San Francisco has already told us he is coming.) In the afternoon there will be a soft ball game against 1933 on the campus. In the evening there will be a stag dinner, enlivened by movies of your college days and the Fifth Reunion. If you don't see the pictures taken at the senior picnic in 1928, you will have missed something.
The morning of Saturday, June 18, will be open for anything you wish, such as a golf tournament, sightseeing, visiting, or just sleeping. After lunch you can go to the varsity baseball game or visit with your friends around the '28 headquarters, the location of which will not be known until shortly before reunion. The class dinner will be held that evening, possibly in the beautiful Colonial Room of the new College Dining Hall, and will be attended by the wives. Afterwards the class business meeting and election of officers will be held. This will be followed by a dance, whreh '28 will sponsor in conjunction with other reunioning classes.
Sunday, June 19, will go down in history as the day of the big '28 picnic. The Entertainment Committee (Lanky Langdell, Bill Kimball, and Ken Graf) are scouring the countryside on skis for the best site, and you will hear more later about this and other entertainment features. There will be plenty of time Sunday morning for a round of golf or a walk around Hanover. Monday you will be left to your own devices.
Wives need have no fear about what they will do, because they will have a time of their own. In the past wives have wondered what to do with themselves when their husbands were attending the class dinner, and then what to do with their husbands thereafter. These little annoyances are to be effectively done away with during the Tenth. The Wives' Reunion Committee is arranging a wives' dinner while the stag dinner is being held, and a theatre party the same evening. There is an idea that will preserve the integrity of many marriages, to say nothing of keeping many husbands out of the dog-house.
The amazing part of the Reunion Committee's announcement is that our reunion tax will be between $9 and $11, probablythe lowest for any tenth reunion on record. The tax for attendance on Saturday for those whose time is limited to that day will be $5, and wives may attend the reunion for a minimum of $2.50 plus the actual costs of any functions attended during the week-end. Last year the '27 tax was $16 and the year before the '26 assessment was $15. Your reunion will be second to none, and it will cost about half as much.
An attractive costume is being selected by the Costume Committee (Johnny Phillips and Jim Campion), and will be announced later. The Publicity Committee is headed by Jack Phelan, assisted by RoyMilliken and Yr. Obedient Servant, who will edit numerous issues of "The Reunion Campaigner" to keep you informed of reunion plans. The Budget Committee, which is responsible for the low tax, is. headed by Treasurer Jack McLaughlin and includes Jack Phelan, Larry Martin,Jack Kenerson, and Don Norris. Presiding over all this beehive of activity and correlating the work of all the committees is Prexy Phelan. A wah-hoo-wah to them for arranging a bang-up reunion.
NEWS FROM THE CHINESE FRONT
Today's newspapers carry a despatch that the Japanese have finally occupied Tsingtao after weeks of dynamiting of factories and looting by Chinese mobs. Among the 200 Americans who remained in the city was, we believe, George Bell, who is with the Standard-Vacuum Oil Cos. in that city. Just before Christmas we received a letter from George which has a timely interest:
"Tsingtao, China "Nov. 10, 1937
"In the October issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE I note that you have written to me to enquire how the current hostilities are affecting me. Maybe I'm wrong or maybe the mail service isn't what it used to be out here, but, strange as it may seem, I have yet to receive the letter. I appreciate the thought anyway. And then perhaps the letter hasn't been able to catch up with me since my recent strategic and hasty retreat from Tsinanfu. That place promised to be a hot spot, so I promptly vacated, and am now resting quietly and catching my breath in Tsingtao.
"Regarding the effect of the war on me, I would advise that so far it has induced only a pain in the neck. There are those who, with shattered nerves, are bravely bearing up under incessant bombing attacks and the concussion of big guns in their immediate neighborhood. Indeed, there are many of us located in Shanghai and Nanking that have blood-curdling tales to tell. But to date I am not one of those, and I am keeping my fingers crossed. I'm sorry (well, maybe not exactly sorry) that I haven't anything to say about the war that would be of any possible interest to anyone, but the fact is I haven't heard a shot fired, and all I know about the fracas is what I read in the papers.
"Although so far I have escaped shellshock, which is getting to be a regular occupational disease out here, the war has not yet left me entirely unscathed. Due to the general uncertainty and what not it was deemed advisable for my wife and child to leave China. They left for the States August 30, and just when we will get together again is, to say the least, uncertain. Another thing that is equally problematical is what the status of the foreigner and foreign business interests will be in China when this is all over.
"Best regards to the boys, and a happy 10th reunion. Maybe I'll be there; who knows?
"GEORGE."
The reason our letter did not reach him was because it was addressed to Tsinanfu and arrived after George had retreated. Hope you will write us again, George!
The first Wednesday in each month from now until reunion the Boston '28ers will hold a dinner at Patton's on Court St., opposite the City Hall Annex. A large turnout of our class is expected at the annual Boston Alumni Association dinner on Feb. 9. The New York delegation of '28ers is also holding monthly dinners at the new Dartmouth Club.
Dr. and Mrs. Robert C. Byrne of Hatfield, Mass., announce the arrival of Robert Cooper Byrne Jr., on Dec. 29. . ... Wat Dickerman is working in New York for the American Association for Adult Education and has just returned from a trip to California as part of his work Bill Ballard, a biology professor at Dartmouth, took an 18-day cruise with Harold Rugg '06 during the Christmas vacation, visiting Haiti, Colombia, Jamaica, and the Canal Zone BillWhaley called up a few days ago, just as he was leaving for Oklahoma City, where he is employed by the Air Reduction Cos.
The engagement of Dr. Howard PaulSerrell to Miss Margarita Noble, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert P. Noble, of Round Hill, Greenwich, Conn., was announced Nov. 24. Miss Noble attended Greenwich Academy and the Ethel Walker School. "Bucky" graduated from Cornell University Medical College and is now practicing in Greenwich Chris Hackett started a new job Jan. 3 in the advertising department of the publishing firm of Street & Smith, in New York.
. . . . Dr. Milt Hoefle of Brooklyn, N. Y., finally got the electric train he has wanted for years; a very opportune excuse came in the form of getting it for his one-year-old baby!
On Dec. 20, when business men in the East were very blue, we received a cheery letter from San Francisco from Jud Whitehead, who is managing the West Coast affairs of the Whitehead Metal Products Cos., manufacturers of monel metal boilers, sinks, etc. He says:
"Business is excellent on the Coast, andthe recession doesn't seem to have gofie tothe same depths in the West as people tellus it has gone in the East.
"Possibly you know that the first of December we opened a water heater and sinkplant in Los Angeles, and are now building alongside of it another plant, whichwill be finished on the fifteenth of January,m which we will make these tanks. Theplant is 104 feet by 500 feet, and is deigned to take care of the requirements ofthe western states. Business is sufficientlygood to justify the necessary capital expenditures and other expenditures attendant in setting up a plant."
Thanks, Jud, for cheering us up. And let us remind all of you again—plan now to attend the TREMENDOUS TENTH.
As prepared by Tucker, Anthony & Cos. 120 Broadway, New York
