1916
By the time you get this you will be fanning yourself and maybe slapping at an occasional moskeeter, but I am personally fondling a blood blister I got while chopping wood for an icy Easter Sunday fireplace, without thinking to take off my '16 class ring. Thirty-six above zero on Easter Sunday, cherry blossoms or no cherry blossoms.
Bill Biel informs me that he occasionally gets to Washington (as who does not) but usually leaves on the first plane he can catch after finishing with the Bureaucrats. Seems strange to rush out of Washington, because, after all, he is only going to New York. Anyway he promises to call me up at least next time, so I can tap him for some news.
Gran Fuller, who passed through Washington on a quest to revive slumbering lumbering, wrote after he got home and said he had called Harold Tuttle from Atlanta. Tuttle, you recall, is living in Toccoa, Georgia. A raging sou'wester prevented them from getting together, but at least they had a chat. Harold is manager of the North Georgia Process Co., having moved down there from New Jersey a year ago. I have already told you Tut's son graduated from West Point, had a brilliant war record and is now a captain, and (by now) married to his Ohio sweetheart. By the way, and important, is the announcement that Harold himself will come back for reunion.
Dick Parkhurst, I meant to tell you before, notified the President of the United States that he wished to retire from the Maritime Commission at the end of his term, 16th of April. This would have been in the Newsletter for March, but I went a bit over my alloted space and the college authorities had to cut my copy at their own discretion, and that item got cut. Anyway, I know that Dick handled a tremendous job, full of vexations, complexities and headaches, and made a valuable contribution to the problem of how to keep the American flag flying on the seven seas. I should guess Dick needs a rest.
A note from Lucille Cole (vice-president and general manager of the Livingston Cole establishment) encloses a clipping, probably from The Chicago Tribune, about beauty queens, and the mothers who got them dressed, wear themselves out fixing them up, etc. The guy that wrote that knew something. Incidentally, the secretary welcomes, has welcomed and will welcome communications from the 1916 wives, who have practically taken the Class over anyway. This column and the Newsletter would be much more difficult to compose if it were not for the news value and cooperation of classmates' wives, and as for one of those former bachelor reunions, the secretary wouldn't take the trouble to go to Hanover for one.
Jack Curtin hands me a copy of a letter he wrote to Bill McKenzie, in which he details the woes of a man moving from Ft. Wayne, Indiana—finding an apartment, wangling a telephone, taking the New York drivers' test, etc. He mentions a foul winter in Schenectady, one recording being 26 degrees below, and total snowfall of 93 inches plus. Jack was surprised to see his picture in the ALUMNIMAGAZINE, he says, and compliments the 1916 News Bureau. His return to the East coincides with a reorganization of General Electric product lines as "businesses," giving each such "business" almost independent autonomy while retaining the advantages of G.E.'s big organization. Jack pays a compliment to the swell people of the Middle West, who, he says, really go out of their way to make you feel at home. However, he does not care for flat country and is glad to be within reach of certain important events that occur on Saturday afternoons in autumn. Jack will be seen around the Dartmouth-frequented circuit from now on.
Phil Nordell has a Cord automobile which he refers to as a "semi-antique." Recently, in a show, it got honorary mention. In a previous show it got second. And this without Phil sitting in the car, too.
Old news by the time you read this, but anyway, Cliffe and Peg Bean, and RalphGeorge were guests at the Hanover Inn in February, Heinie repeated in March, and JimShanahan also checked in during the windy month.
Bones Joy reports a move to 8102 West 4th St., Los Angeles 36, California. We print this merely for the convenience of process servers and U. S. marshalls.
A recent issue of Look Magazine featured Ros Magill on its page entitled "LOOK" APPLAUDS THESE PEOPLE WHO ARE MAKING GOOD NEWS". It starts out:
"The little guy with the baggy suit and the hungry look is his best friend. Recently, as head of a citizens' committee, he urged upon Congress more than 40 changes in the Federal revenue code to benefit the taxpayer. His advice stemmed from 25 years' work with taxes in and out of the govern- ment."
The only thing bad is that the item didn't tie him up with Dartmouth.
Ruth Ann Brown, daughter of our classmate Bill, the erudite high school principal of Glens Falls, New York, is the gal who edits these contributions at Hanover, and sees that 1916 gets all the breaks it is entitled to. Well the congratulations and best wishes of the class go to Ruth Ann now, because she was married on March 27, to Philip Bradbury Shepard, at Glens Falls. The groom will be graduated from Dartmouth this June. He served in the Navy during the war, and his father is Captain Andrew Gilbert Shepard, U.S.N. This was a real Dartmouth wedding, with guests from Hanover, including several of Mr. Shepard's classmates, and the organist playing, among other pieces, "Dartmouth Undying." Anyway, Ruth Ann will still be on the job for a while yet, Bill says, before she and her husband move to other parts.
Col. Lawrence Mitchell wrote me as follows:
"The thirty-five or so years since I departed from Hanover to join the Army have passed rather rap- idly in spots but sometimes I have been pleased to meet 1916 classmates in the most unusual places and times during these years."
I hope you'll come up to Hanover in June 1950 and meet everybody,. Colonel, and cancel those 35 years.
One of our ambitions, which we may realize some day, is to get out a directory of 1916-ers by geographical locations. In Los Angeles, frinstance, and environs, there are a number of our classmates, and I wonder if RolandWass, who has just moved to 2615 Corning St., Los Angeles 34, knows or cares that BonesJoy, who plays all known musical instruments except the South Madagascar "zshwhft," has moved to 8102 West 4th St., Los Angeles 36, just two short postal districts away, or vice versa. Bones, now that you are in your new location, how about lending Wallie your lawn mover, or your hydraulic jack, since I seem to remember that they don't have lawns in Los Angeles, only dessicated hay.
Dr. John P. Goodrich, who went to school in South Royalton, Vt., and who has been practicing in Hampden, Maine, has moved back to South Royalton, making one more case to prove that the old home town is the best place to live, regardless of where and what it is. Wasn't it Goodrich who used to strum those resounding chords on a guitar on the second floor of Sanborn, freshman year? I took 14 lessons on a guitar, after listening to Goodrich and now, some 30 years later, by dint of hard and constant practice, I can play those same half-dozen chords.
While I am writing about myself, always a fascinating subject to me, it seems only fair to tell the Class that their secretary sang the part of the daughter in "Behind those swinging doors" at a barbershop concert for the benefit of George Washington U. Hospital. The critics said my rendition of "Father, dear father, come home with me now" brought tears to their eyes. I did it in costume, awretty.
Wandering through the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, which is the American substitute for the old Cafe de la Paix in Paree (Leigh Rogers has been seen in both) whom should I encounter but Day DeVoe, briefcase in hand, and having the air of a man who has just sat in on portentous conferences. Ray was about to dash for a plane back to Wall Street, but had a half hour to spare, so we repaired to the men's bar of the Mayflower, one of the few retreats where you can still get away from 'em, and discussed the policies of the College, to which Ray has given considerable thought. Ray has his five children distributed around in different schools, including young Ray now in Dartmouth. We spent an interesting half hour, after which Ray went to his aircraft and I went to count ballots at the S.A.R. election.
Sunday, 4 April, saw 62,983 (official) persons visiting the collection of German-owned paintings at the Mellon Gallery in Washington. One of them, whom I encountered stepping off the elevator, was that well-known art critic and museum weevil, Mil Streeter. No occasion to chat, just a greeting, and the thought that you find 1916 men everywhere aestheticism is rampant, and Mil passed on into the crowd. Good to see him for a minute, however.
Seen (and heard) at the April Dartmouth alumni dinner: Gen. "Stew" Paul, Col. JohnAmes, Harry Anson Bates (all three in the Pentagon), Jess Fenno, and the Secretary.
HIS HANOVER HOLIDAY: Robert A. Brown '16 of Nashua, N. H., noted raconteur and past president of his Class, who selected the locality of Hanover to recover from a recent operation.
Secretary, 2721 Blaine Drive, Chevy Chase 15, Md. Treasurer, 370 S. Westmoreland Ave., Los Angeles 5, Calif. Class Agent, 97 Mayfield Ave., Akron, Ohio
