1926*
A number of welcome letters have arrived since we last went to press—so many, in fact, that some will have to be held over for next month.
From the Pebble Hill School in Dewitt, N. Y., Wad Woods reports that he has been there since 1930, that he is assistant headmaster and athletic director. Last fall his football team won six and lost one and now Wad is finishing up basketball and starting to think of his baseball team.
"We schoolmasters will never get rich but there's something stimulating about spending the day in the company of youths from the ages of twelve to eighteen A schoolmaster is always faced with the problem of how to spend the summer. Four of mine were spent in getting a master's, others traveling, in boys' camps, tutoring, farming and for the past three summers I've been helping Mai Merrill and his father operate the Lookout Hotel at Ogunquit, Maine Nadine and I celebrated our eleventh wedding anniversary last August and our one child, Diane, is just entering school."
Gob Knowlton is in Ramona, California and proprietor of the Camera Shop.
"As long as films lasted I was having fun getting pictures in the Saturday Post, Look and such like magazines, but the war put a kink in that, so tried making Consolidated B-24 bombers for a while. Then to the management of the official labor paper in San Diego where my eyes were opened to how much the commercial press is coloring the news to cause the average citizen to along the lines the monopolists want them to think, regardless of the truth.
"During this period I made several futile attempts to get back to my first love, the sea, through the Navy or Coast Guard but found that the years had piled up, along with a physical drawback or two and had to give up. This did make me a bit bitter, as I was too young to get in the last war and now too old for this one—something of the lost generation.
"However, I did manage to compromise by working as a fire fighter under civil service at Camp Callan, an AA replacement training camp here. We alternate, 24 hours an duty and 24 hours at home when we tend our gardens and livestock. We have a little plot of 2 1/2 acres with orange, lemon, peach and plum trees on it. The two boys raise chickens and rabbits respectfully and respectively. The spring vegetables already are pushing up through the ground."
Another welcome report from the West coast comes from Bill Gamble, at La Canada, California:
"I was married in Honolulu on December 4, 1941, after living in the Islands about six months. My wife and I left on the 'Lurline' for the mainland just a day and a half before Pearl Harbor. Outside of being blacked out and without any outside news three days, the trip was without incident.
"We were going to take a trip through South America, but the war knocked this out. So we bought a house up here and I am now working for the Monitor Piezo Products Cos. of South Pasadena. We cut and finish Brazilian quartz for Army and Navy radio sets and are the first plant in this district to receive the 'E' award."
The Rankins are now living at 150 Everett Avenue, Providence, R. I. Walt has had another advancement in the New England Telephone 8c Telegraph Cos., which required the move from their old home in Andover.
OF BABIES AND THINGS
From Anna Bailey, South Weymouth, Mass. "At long last Chris and I announce to '26ers, and the world, the arrival of our twins, Jane and June Bailey. They were born January 3, 1943 at Milton Hospital, Milton, Mass. Chris has been green-eyed for so long reading about the other fellows' children—for we've been married twelve years. But now the stork has restored our faith so completely that we might date him again with an order for material for Dartmouth, Class of '66."
Allen MacDuffie has been one of the top shots of the S.E.C. for so long that he's become entirely too secretive. Just the other day I discovered that he forsook his benedict life some time ago. On January 26, 1940, Mac and Viola Parkhill of West Frankfort, Illinois, were married at the parish house of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. Mac's step-daughter, Elizabeth Jean Butler, is now 12 and he commutes daily from Loch Arbour, Asbury Park.
On the 19th of last December, in Chestnut Hill, Mass., Robert Dana Blake greeted his parents, Henry and Mary. His daddy is at Bain Field, Pensacola, Florida, as administrative assistant to the C. O. Henry says "Doc Wright, Tommy Thompson and I were all in the May, 1942, class at Quonset, finishing up last December as full lieutenants. The weather here is as freakish as New England—we need bridge coats at night and whites at noon." Young Robert, incidentally, was considerate enough to make his arrival while Henry was home on nine day leave.
Dick Nichols is a busy guy these days, what with his legal practice and many outside activities. Just now he has finished a highly successful War Fund campaign in Wellesley—as properly attested by an excellent picture in the Boston Herald.
I DIDN'T RAISE MY BOY TO BE A SOLDIER
Two more 'a6ers turned up at Quonset in the same class with Clarence McDavitt and Ritchie Smith—Maury Quint and Hugh Moore. Maury writes:
"The pace here is terrific—been here almost a month and have had a chance to barely exchange greetings with the other boys. Something doing every minute and to top it off we are kept half sick all the time by 'sho'ts' of one kind or other. Hope to get some sort of overseas service—but that's up to the Navy."
Lou Neuman's mother was good enough to write me the other day to say that he is now a corporal and is serving somewhere in Alaska. From Texas to Alaska is quite a jump, even for the Army. It's obvious from Lou's picture that he is one of the few who hasn't become fat and fortyish.
George has been Captain Tully of the Army Medical Corps since last November. Ralph Thomas is now a major and is Finance Officer of the air base at Colorado Springs and the Army flying schools at Garden City and Dodge City, Kansas.
From Russ Webster in Columbus, Ohio, who carefully refrains from saying a word about himself:
"Chet Morton, having enlisted in the Navy last July as a seaman, has been commissioned a lieutenant (s.g.). After some special training at Chicago, he will report to Hanover for indoctrination, which in itself is a good reason for joining up, I reckon."
After nine months of important personnel work in Washington in a civilian capacity, Red Raisbeck is now sporting a lieutenant colonelcy, which in my score book is the highest rating thus far received by a '26er. From what I know of his work, he richly deserves the honor. Red is with the Office of Personnel, Division Headquarters, Services of Supply, Washington.
THEY STILL LOOK NATURAL Maybe not so slender but you recognize this array of '26 talent from senior-year picture,left to right: Doug Everett, Secretary-Chairman Bob Cleary, Brant Wallace, Fritz Lawson,and Herb Darling.
CORPORAL LOUIS NEUMAN '26
Secretary, Welsh Farms, Inc. Long Valley, N. J.
