1933
There is more than a touch of winter in the air on this crisp November morning. A stiff wind is blowing across the campus bringing down the last leaves from the tall elms, and squads of Bill Gooding's men are raking them up. After several weeks of fighting what appeared to be a losing fight, when a night's leaffall more than made up for the previous day's work, the department of buildings and grounds now has the upper hand. In a day or two these faithful and persistent leaf-rakers can relax and do whatever leaf-rakers do after a hard season. Presumably, like everybody else these days, they'll reconvert, and in a couple of weeks reappear in toques, mufflers, and mittens, with brand new postwar snow- shovels. You know, the kind that's been advertised in the magazines, with a sponge rubber pad that just fits the elbow on the handle, and a radar gadget that not only tells them when they're on the target but makes a lightning- quick calculation and flashes a red light on the screen when the target weighs more than six and a half pounds. Speaking of snow, none has fallen on Hanover Plain yet this Fall, but it is not far away. As I look out of my study window in Baker I can see Cube wearing a white blanket, and an old Vermont farmer I met on Main Street this morning says it's making up to it fast. It was down to fifteen up at his place this morning.
But in the College it's more like spring than winter. After the long war-time dimout in
civilian enrollment, extra-curricular activities, and many other things that make Dartmouth what it is, the opening of the Winter Term last week brought with it many signs that the postwar College is here and building fast. Enrollment has climbed to 1638, of whom more than 200 are newly returned veterans, 100 or so are new '4gers. About 700 civilian students in all, and that means that steps will soon be taken to re-open fraternities, resume publication of the Daily Dartmouth, and revive all kinds of activities that were temporarily war casualties. But this renaissance is not all new wine in old bottles. It has its uniquely original side too. For example, the staid Fayer- weathers have been converted into apartments and they now house braves who collected squaws on the warpath (or vice versa maybe, huh!), and down where the rec tennis courts used to be, by the grade school, bulldozers are preparing the ground for Sachem Village, where there will be fifty units of prefabricated tepees for married veterans.
Well, in peace as in war, '33ers continue to be as closemouthed as ever, we regret to say. Occasionally' a stray bit of news filters through the barrier of voluntary censorship, as, for example, when we read in the papers the other day that Monagan had been re-elected Mayor o£ Waterbury. This is his third term, isn't it? It must be. After all, he's a Democrat and a third term, and a fourth, and more should come pretty easily to him. We picked up a copy of Esquire a few weeks ago, and after reading the comics and the sports page, We were interested to find a story written by Pete Mankowski. "One Will Stand" is the name of it, and it appeared in the September issue Wonder if that means that Pete is reconverting too. Last we heard from him he was still a lieutenant with the Navy in the Pacific.
It was our impression that cupid had pretty much wound up his business in '33, but apparently the little guy is still getting in his innings. He picked off a lieutenant commander two majors, and a lieutenant recently. The victims: Lt. Comdr. Harold W. Smith's engagement to Wave Lt. (jg) Elizabeth Grant Copenhaver, of Charleston, W. Va., was announced in October, and the nuptials were celebrated on November 10 in Norfolk; MajorEdward Sumner Lord was married to Anne Cooper on October 17 in Nashville, Tenn. Major Howard J. Farmer took to wife Lenice Heidrich James of Madelia, Minn., on October 20. Lt. William Noyes McKee was married to Wac Lt. Margaret Magee White in Bronxville on September 15.
We have recorded in the nipper and future men of Dartmouth department the birth on October 26 of George Mellen Rideout Jr.
Marion Starr brought us up to date recently on the Starr family. Several months ago, you will recall, we spread on the record Bill's exploits in the Pacific. She wrote: "We now have two children, a girl two and a half and a boy, William J. III, six months. Bill is a lieutenant commander on the Spencer, A.G.C., which is now in Shanghai after a year of invasions with the Seventh Fleet. If luck is with us he'll get home by Christmas—our first one together since 1941....I intend to drag Bill to Hanover almost as soon as he gets here so don't be surprised if we arrive with our bottle of champagne." Now that, Marion, we like. We'll meet you at the Lebanon town line—with an escort.
Dorothy Flynn, Dave's sister, reports that Dave has been upped to lieutenant commander, that he is stationed at the Naval Air Base in Key West, and that he has been lucky enough to have his wife and ten month old son with him ever since he was assigned to that station last October.
Gene Merkt, via letter to Sam Black, reports "You might be interested to know that I have left the gentle arms of U. S. Rubber at Naugatuck and am now located in the Trust Investment Department of 'The Pennsylvania Insurances on Lives and Granting Annuities' (the honest-to-God title!!—a bank) at 15th & Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia 1." Sam, who's towed many a legal brief through Washington's alphabet soup, says he'd like an official shortcut for that one. Merkt of TID in TPILGRA, perhaps, but we'll take it straight. It probably doesn't make a bit of difference but we'd much rather go into the atomic age with a policy bearing a moniker with the full-bodied Main Line flavor that one has than with TPILGRA, that only suggests long bitter evenings chewing a pencil over surtaxes and stuff and inspires no confidence whatever.
Cliff Johnson is with the Red Cross in Germany, and has finally come to roost more or less permanently in Wiesbaden, alter taking a Cook's Tour in his first few months over there that took him to Glasgow, Southampton, Winchester, Paris, Le Havre, Orleans, Druex, Marseilles, Bremen, Berlin, Cologne, Bebra, Brunswick, Nuremberg, Munich, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Frankfurt, Mains—all on Red Cross business.
p S. 24 hours later. Before I take these notes over to Charlie Widmayer I thought you'd like to know that the old farmer was right, gad snow last night. Yesterday's leaf rakers are out on Memorial Field clearing it away for the Cornell game tomorrow. Speedy reconversion that, just like the College, and a quick one to you too.
BRONZE STAR HOLDER NOW A CIVILIAN. Lt. Colonel Lyle M. Spencer '33 was recently relieved from active duty and has returned to his former position in Chicago as president of Science Research Associates. He saw active service in Africa, Italy, France and Germany.
Secretary, 20 Valley Rd., Hanover, N. H.
Treasurer, 2812 Grant Bldg., Pittsburgh 19, Pa.
