1940*
Harvard Business School, Boston, Mass.
This month members of the Class of 1940 from coast to coast are saying, "Well, what do you think of the football team?" I have no quarrel with this topic of conversation. Mind you, I think it is fine to talk about the football team, particularly if you know anything about it, or if you are meeting an older alumnus and can't think of anything else to say.
I do feel however that something should be done, either to stop people from asking the attendant at the Dartmouth Club what he thinks of the team, or to keep him from answering as if he really knew.
This man knows nothing about football. He has not seen a football game in fifteen years. He doubts if he would go now, even if he had a Saturday off. Nevertheless, he told me yesterday, that on an average fall day he says, "It certainly does" one hundred and forty-two times, in answer to people who come in from the street and say, "Well, it looks like a real outfit this year." You can understand what this might do to a man.
Evidently it is a reflex action, as uncontrollable as turning the head for a passing blonde. One enters the Club; one sees a slightly familiar face; one says, "Well, looks like a good season for the team."
I suggested to him that instead of answering, "It certainly does," he should sometime reply, "The hell it does," or "That shows what you know about it." But he said this would only confuse people and then where would he be.
So I told him I would tell you about it. We all come up against this problem sooner or later and I thought some of you might have figured out an answer.
LETTER FROM RAYNO
"I am sitting," says Bud Raymond, "on a painter's scaffold and Sue is putting stuff away in drawers. We were married on Sept. 20, spent a couple of marvelous weeks in the Smoky Mountains, and for the past two days we have been carrying stuff upstairs. We are on the third level. Ellsworth is the only guy who is higher. When Sue and I went to see Barbie and him it took us thirty-five minutes to get upstairs. Here is what I know about people:
"Lt. Bob Raclin married Jean Curran in May and has been stationed at Quantico ever since. Has just been transferred to San Diego where he goes on active duty. Is in charge of one of these Higgins landing boats.
"Petty Officer Wheezer White the poor guy, had hay fever so badly at my bachelor dinner that he couldn't talk. He is a Petty Officer at Great Lakes where instructs in physical education and will play a lot of bucketball this winter. They have a crack team out there which will go all over the country and play college teams. They are trying to get Broberg and Jim Bennett of Cornell.
"Bo Macdonald working for Chicago Moulded Products in Chicago. Announced his engagement to Jean McCracken of Pine Manor and Northwestern last month. Plans to be married this winter.
"Tiger Klein is now in California working in an airplane plant.
"Phil Dostal still with McCann Erickson on the Coast.
"Soup Campbell in the Navy Air Corps at Corpus Christie, Texas, where 'the mail situation is deplorable.' "Bud Barber just married Martha Waite of Tucson, Arizona and is now a sergeant in the Coast Artillery in California.
"Moose Stearns Pvt. First class at Fort Lewis, Washington in the Field Artillery. He is a range finder for one of the big guns. Just announced his engagement to Rosella Brecht, also from Hutchinson, Minn.
"Bill Vroom a Lt. in the Army Air Corps at Langley Field where he is flying the big bombers which the Chicago Tribune refers to as 'death traps.' Willie says they are nice ships. Has just announced his engagement to Sue Cook from Worcester and Smith.
"Sid Craig still at N. U. Law School. "Ned Jacoby a Lt. in the Army Air Corps, ferrying bombers.
"Dewitt Jones got engaged to Barbara White (sister of Sport '39) and joined the Army Air Corps the same week.
"Jim McElroy still with International Harvester. Transferred back to Chicago office after a spring and summer on the road.
"Lt. Soldier Phelan still at Quantico. But he didn't get Hale who always said that he could stand the Service if he didn't land in Soldier's troop.
"Ensign Bill Reardon still in the Navy, but I don't know whether he got mosquito boat duty or not. That's what the dope put in for.
"Bill Rothermel in St. Paul working for an insurance company and waiting for his draft papers.
"John Stevens working for Curtis Wright in Patterson, N. J."
OTHERWISE REPORTED
John Maynard writes from Meriden: "I address this tardy card to you telling of the birth of Jared Spencer Maynard on June 15 th—and a more charming father's day gift no man will ever receive. We had hoped she might be the class baby but things didn't turn out that way. We prophesy that she will be Carnival Queen in 1959, but she looks like the old man so maybe she will have to be content with just being there."
Ensign Art Mountrey, stationed in New York says that life in the Navy is not much like playing Tom Swift. For illustration he points to Ed Kuhns who signed up early, trained at Annapolis and hoped for foreign duty. Behind a large mahogany desk in Washington, Ed Kuhns is now counting the number of words on telegrams.
Ensign A. Lee Blades is in the Public Works Department of the Naval Operating Base at Norfolk.
Ed Banta writes that he, Bob Unangst,Perc Mclntire, and Al Humphries came from Dartmouth's Med. School to N. Y. U. together and are now starting their third year. Ed announces his engagement on October 25 to Miss Jean Ryerson, University of North Carolina and Katherine Gibbs and they hope to be married in a year.
Bud Campbell's Weather Squadron duties have taken him to Porto Rico.
Bill Bumstead was rejected by the draft and is now working for Cities Service in New Jersey.
Don Schott is a defense worker for National Carbine in New Jersey. Gordon Van Cleve is in his second year at Columbia Law.
Jack Fitzgerald writes to tell me of the marriage of Ed Doyle to Jane Singleton in Washington on August 16th, with Ed Halsey as best man. Says Ed: "Doyle, Faulkner,Raclin, Goodwin and myself are waiting our orders in the Marines."
Lloyd Blanchard is in his second year of teaching Math, at Sarasota Florida High School.
Cecil Moore now works for Eastern Air Lines in Washington, D. C. Keith Benson is in the Army in Colorado.
Fred Porter, turned down by the air corps, is working for Wright Aero, and currently engaged in planning the annual Theta Delt Reunion at the Princeton game. Bud Krone is in St. Louis, building airplanes. Sid Morley is the man who puts magazines in the covers on the Pennsylvania R. R. trains. Larry Gordon was married on August 22 to Annette Rockwell (Colby). Ken Steele and Evelyn Nickerson (Colby) were married on Sept. 6 in Springfield.
Secretary, 6407 RCA Bldg., Rockefeller Center New York, N. Y. Treasurer, Chase B-11
