1935
That at least one member of the class has made proper reply to Treasurer class CHANEY'S poetic pleas for payment of class dues is evidenced by the following quatrains recently received in response to the Treasurer's "story of Axel Snort, who mostly did things he hadn't ort."
This is the story of Uncle Reg Whose bills had kept him all on edge; He's married a girl with light brown hair Whose memory was only fair.
He made a trip in last November And as he left he said "Remember Pay my dues for thirty-five Or Bobb will boil my bones alive."
He left with mind at rest, serene In having wiped his slate so clean ; And for three months or so he went About his business quite content.
When suddenly the blue unbolted And left old Uncle Reg quite jolted ! Another bill from Uncle Bobb, And from his wife, a gasp, a sob!
With humble look and tear in eye, With words contrite and heartfelt sigh She made confession, she forgot To send the dough the class had sought. So this is the story of Uncle Reg Whose bills had kept him all on edge: His wife now cleans the floors and shelf And makes him pay the bills himself. from: BABS BANKART'S husband.
PER ARDVA AD ASTRA, the motto of the R.A.F., enclosed in concentric circles set under the crown of England with a spread eagle super-imposed across the circles, appears appropriately enough at the top of the official stationery on which BOB SELLMER has written the following letter:
1980941 L.A.C SELLMER "B" FLIGHT "No.I.SQUADRON "Min-Y-Don" Newquay Cornwall England
Feb. 2, 1941
Dear Jack—
Your Christmas card came through thetorpedoes in good shape and pulled intoNewquay yesterday without a scratch. Itwas good to get a breath of Hanover again(even by way of Ohio) and to realize thatsomewhere things were going along inpeace and in comfort.
I admit to being a bit surprised at such arenowned relaxer as Gilchrist taking allthat work on his shoulders, but his example has inspired me to great efforts andI'll try to give a brief resume of my activities. As I don't know how much Tommyand Mac have given out about me, I'llstart right from the beginning and let youuse what you want.
After graduation I went down to NewYork and spent two years at free-lancinand various journalistic odd-jobs, managing to keep my health despite the unhealthy environment provided by the massof '35-ers grimly determined to balance thenational budget by their contribution tothe liquor tax alone. In September of '37 Igot an itching foot and beat it over toEurope, where I batted around Holland,Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (including a slightcontretemps in Memel), Poland, Germanyand Czechoslovakia, writing magazine articles and keeping out of trouble to the bestof my ability. This idyllic period lasted until the Spring of '39, when I settled downin Budapest as London Times correspondent for Hungary and Slovakia. This wenton for about a year, uneventful except fora sneak trip to occupied Poland and various run-ins with the Hungarian ForeignOffice, and when, by the spring of 1940, itwas becoming obvious that the center ofexcitement was going to be in the West, Ileft the Times and joined The French Foreign Legion in the hope of seeing what thewar was all about. I landed in France thefirst of May and went into training inincredibly filthy billets just outside ofLyons. The Armistice found me in a hospital in Lyons (various complications aris-ing from the above-mentioned filth), occupied by the Germans, and more or lessfed up with things in general. By a combination of good luck and good management I was overlooked by the Boche intheir hunt for Legionnaires and when thetroops went back to the occupied zone Iwas sent to a little town just north of Marseilles to await, demobilization in a hastilyconstructed Legion camp. I spent a monthand a half there working in a stone quarryunder a blazing sun and pulling every wireI could to get demobilized and not, as wasthreatened, sent to a labour battallion forthe duration. Early in August I got out andwas in Marseilles until the middle of September keeping alive and wangling an exitpermit from Vichy. Finally I got out byway of an obvious and much-used channelwhich various silly rules here forbid me tomention, and came to England to join the R.A.F. in the hope of getting my own backfor the steady bombing we got in our training camp before the Armistice. I was accepted in October, and am now training tobe a bomber pilot along with a gang ofcrazy Englishmen who, if sheer wacky gutscount for anything, should be able to blast Jerry out of the deepest hole he can find.
We've just finished an intensive groundcourse in navigation, gunnery, Morse codeand the like, and in a few days we'll be sentto our flying schools. We're killing timeshooting clay pigeons as practice for eventually shooting at swooping planes. We'realso waiting from day to day for the invasion, which some of the wiseacres say willtake place down here, and all this keeps usfrom getting bored.
This outline has of necessity been verysketchy, but it gives a rough outline, andI couldn't fill in the details without running into about five full editions of the ALUMNI MAG., SO I'll let it stand as it is.And please excuse the lack of paragraphing and the illegible scrawl; I'm not usedto writing longhand and my typewriter iswith the rest of my luggage in the basementof a Paris hotel.
I hope this is what you want, Jack, andthat Sid can send over the D.A.M. occasionally, as I'd like to catch up on my verybackward knowledge of '55 and of Hanover in General. I don't know what mynext address will be, but anything sent herewill be forwarded.
My best to the Cleveland crew and allthe other Da'tmouths you run into.Sincerely,
BOB SELLMER.
The midway through Bob's lengthy address represents an oblong hole cut by His Majesty's censors in the first page of the letter, and on the back of the envelope, where Examiner No. 1253 evidently disagreed with Bob as to what should or what should not be revealed in his address. Other than that, the letter came through unblemished in any manner, arriving here near the end of March. It is- a real privilege to receive such an interesting letter; we've answered Bob, telling him news of ourself and of you, and we hope the rest of you will do likewise. PER ARDVA AD ASTRA.
ADDENDA
BUD WISE writes that he and Iris are deeply appreciative of the "handsome tooled leather portfolio and scrapbook which '35 presented to their son Billy when he was finally determined Class Baby at Reunion .... seems, through some misunderstanding, the gift was left in Hanover and our Brother FITZHUGH had to do some long-distance sleuthing to locate it Billy now has a younger brother Peter Chapman Wise, just about one year old.
CRAMP CARRICK was drafted but managed to land a three year stretch as a CoastGuard instructor instead .... NORRIE NIMS was seen in Hanover about the middle of March .... WILEY HUBBELL, moved back to Schenectady, writes he was due for the draft in April.... says he saw Roy Reuther in Pittsburgh looking fine and busy GORDIE YORK calls Uncle Sam boss these days
THEODORE TISHENG YEN, who was with our class during second semester freshman year, having transferred from Yen ChingUniversity in Peking, is now a Captain in the Chinese Army and is located in Washington as an Aide to the Chinese Ambassador.
vie LUNEBORG, writing from 521 Stephenson, Shreveport, La., says "with the exception of summer vacation, which yearly trek is made to Long Island, we rarely have the good fortune of seeing "Men of Dartmouth so if any should be around or visiting in our vicinity Betsy and I would appreciate their dropping in for a good barbecue, a few cups of grog, and a floor show by the kids!" Anyone heading for CAMP SHELBY might keep that in mind.
REMINDER
An early gift to the Alumni Fund will relieve the pressure on majordomo BOBHAGE and his staff of assistants.... giveearly .... the College needs your help, and the class needs you on the roster of contributors in order to attain our rightful position among the recent classes. Are youwith us?
Secretary, 1843 Cadwell Ave., Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Class Agent, Vick Chemical Company 122 East 42nd St., New York, N. Y.
