1912
On the occasion of their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary Ruel and Hazel Gibbs were crowned Cranberry King and Queen at' their winter home near Tucson, Ariz., last January. The picture of the occasion, which is here reproduced, appears on the cover of the March, 1948 issue of Cranberry World. Ruel is one of the outstanding cranberry growers of the country and has long been active in the American Cranberry Exchange, which is the cranberry growers' co-operative, having been president of that organization from 1942 to 1944, and is president and a director of the New England Cranberry Sales Company and Exchange in which he has been a member since 1914. Ruel's son-in-law John Garretson, and daughter Martha are associated with Ruel in his cranberry growing business on Cape Cod. On September 10 a grandson was presented to Ruel and Hazel, John H. Garretson 3rd. Daughter Sally Jane is a senior at Abbott Academy, Andover, Mass.
A long letter from Abe Lincoln on the letterhead of "Office of J. W. Lincoln, City Clerk and Collector" of Tarpon Springs, Fla., acknowledged my birthday greeting to him. Abe has been in Florida since he moved there in 1921. He has two married sons and three granddaughters. One son lives in Mobile and the other is working for his Master's Degree at Florida State College at Tallahassee and planning to go into personnel work.
George Geiser's daughter Nacy was married to C. William Barget Jr. at Bernardsville, N. J., on October g. She is a graduate of MacMurray College, Jacksonville, Ill., and before her marriage was a stewardess with the American Airlines. The groom attended Rutgers University and served as a lieutenant in the Army. He is now associated with Eastern Airlines.
A recent issue of the Harvard Law SchoolRecord carries an article by Cap Allen, giving young lawyers the benefit of Cap's successful experiences in his law practice. The title of the article was "Old Hand Offers Firsthand Advice to Clinch Clients and Please Partners."
Henry Allen, who moved to Minneapolis from Milwaukee in 1945, had to resign as president of the Milwaukee Chapter of the White Fish Bay Co-operative Club, an international service club which is strong in the Middle West, South and Pacific Coast. He found that St. Paul had a Co-operative Club but not Minneapolis, so he organized the Minneapolis Co-operative Club in September, 1947 and became its first president. He has had visits with Bill Middlebrook a couple of times since he has been in Minneapolis. His older daughter Barbara is married and lives in Milwaukee. The younger daughter Joanne lives with Henry and his wife.
Lyme Armes, as Chairman of the Eastern Conference of the National Newspaper Promotion Association, presided over a three-day meeting of the Conference at the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston the last week in October.
Alvie Garcia escaped the heat of New York the last week in September by a business trip to his cigar factory at Tampa, Florida.
During his vacation last August CharlieMcCarthy and his wife spent a few days at the Hanover Inn and played golf with Roy Lewis.
Fletcher Clark drove his son Ed to Hanover and installed him at 105 Richardson as a freshman. Daughter Peg started her college course at Kathrine Gibbs School in Boston after graduating from Colby College last June.
Alice Hitchcock and her son continued her custom of entertaining classmates at a cocktail party after the Harvard game. Those who attended were Lyme and Christine Armes,Queechie and Mrs. French, Caesar and Mrs.Young, Pike Childs, wife and son, Gee Bullard and young Gee, Pett, Mrs. Pettingell and their two daughters.
Dick Remsen was elected to the Board of Trustees of Choate School, Wallingford, Conn, on October 27. Dick's three boys all graduated from Choate and for the past four years Dick has been a member of the Executive Committee of Choate's Fiftieth Anniversary Campaign, which raised an endowment of $2,500,000 for the School.
From Syd Clark: "This is the note from Hawaii I promised. I'm here to get material for the next book and shall be home on quaint Cape Cod after Thanksgiving but before Christmas. These islands are a wonderful place to forget the woes of the international world. The Honolulu papers are so absorbed in local problems that they very often forget to mention such major diseases as Russia and Molotov; or one finds a few inches on these subjects on page 8. But they, and everyone, are most painfully aware of the woes of the labor situation. For more than two months now the regular steamer services from California have been cut off by the maritime strike of Harry Bridges, and the pinch is beginning to be felt very severely, but it will be worse before it's better. Also there has been a local transportation strike for a month or more. It was settled, but not to the satisfaction of the labor leaders, and a new strike is threatened for December 15. Also there has been an islands-wide telephone strike, and on at least one large plantation a sugar workers' strike. Many people here consider them all (except the sugar strike) to be engineered definitely by pink or outright red labor leaders who do not want anything but continued confusion, in the interests of the Kremlin. I have come to believe that too. The screams of some of the local labor leaders sound painfully like Vishinsky talking.
Well, anyway I'm having a very wonderful two months' stay, on all the islands. Day before yesterday I did the Kohala Ditch Trail, seven hours on a mule named Julia. It was very tough going but wonderful. Various people said "You must not try it," adding perhaps, "at your age." But you and I know that we 'l2 men are barely six decades old or less. Six decades are nothing if you have a sure-footed gal like Julia as convoy. I'm headquartering at the Halekulani Hotel in Honolulu, but am island-hopping most of the time. I expect also to get to Molokai, and probably to the leper colony of Kalaupapa. It's an interesting fact that anyone can easily visit this settlement now and the danger is considered absolutely nil. The disease is nearly licked by medical science. This year they paroled more than fifty lepers, who are free to go anywhere they like, including Hanover, N. H., but most of them like Molokai so well that they refuse to leave. If science can do a repeat performance on cancer, conquering it as leprosy has been (almost) conquered, it will be one of the biggest things that has happened on this planet. And now I'm driving on to reach the Volcano House before dark. That is at the base of Mauna Loa, where the frequently active fire pit always simmers. The Honolulu papers managed to mention in a football listing only—Dartmouth's victory over Harvard in football, so I'm not quite lost from the Green World."
The news of Harold Baker's family comes from wife Katharine. They were promoted to the rank of grandparents last June with the birth of Harold Tower 2nd, and are fortunate in having all three of their children located in or near Cleveland. Both sons are engineers and their daughter is almost one—she works in a radio station. "Hal's address seems to be lower 8, any pullman, any direction—with an occasional trip by air. He even expects to be hopping over to Central India sometime this winter where he is to direct the building of a paper mill. The paper is to be made from bamboo and rag."
I recently had dinner and a visit with ElmerBloom, catching up on all the news since I last saw him thirty years ago while he was in boot training at Great Lakes, Ill. Jim Steen had a couple of drinks with us, but had to leave early to attend his Masonic Lodge meeting. I will be seeing Elmer more frequently inasmuch as he makes periodic buying trips to New York for the large Peoria, Ill. department store owned by him and his brother.
SOVEREIGNS FOR A DAY: On their 25th wedding anniversary, Ruel and Hazel Gibbs, Class of 1912, were crowned Cranberry King and Queen, an honor which seems to have pleased them very much.
Secretary, 120 Broadway, New York 5, N. Y. Treasurer, Court House, Dedham, Mass.
