1933

The duckboards are down on the campus, friends, and that event, in this correspondent's lexicon, marks the advent of Spring. In our nearly twenty years' residence in Hanover we have tested a good many of the conventional as well as the more unfquely north country methods of predicting changes in the season, ranging all the way from the groundhog through the Farmer's Almanac to the special auguries used by a highly respected Yankee farmer over Beaver Meadow way. All of them, sooner or later, let us down. And then we discovered, a few years ago, that the Department of Buildings and Grounds had the answer we'd been looking for. Quite by accident one day, as we were walking across campus trying to avoid having the boards slap a jet of mud up our pant-leg, it occurred to us that in all these years Bldgs. & Grds. had never put the boards down too soon, had never in our memory been caught with its boards down, so to speak, when a big snow came. We've never thought to ask Bill Gooding what his technique is, but it works, so when the boards coiae out we put our snow-shovel in storage, relax and dream of warm, sunny days just ahead.

All of which is rather here and there and bears, we must admit, little resemblance to '33 news, except as it may serve as a spring-board (Ouch!) for news of '33 in Hanover. In this quiet, provincial setting things have been popping for our delegation. To go back a little way, on the week-end of Carnival Jack Manchester got a stiff jolt when a thief made off with the heavy week-end's cash receipts of his Gulf Station. The incident had a happy ending with the arrest and confession of the culprit, and the recovery of most of the funds, but not before Jack had spent several painful days on the hook, trying to figure the when, the how, and the why.

A few days ago we acquired a new neighbor. Yes sir, you've guessed it. John Meek will hang his hat from now on at 16 Valley Road. Straight from his work with the Hoover Commission, except for a week or two of vacation spent in acquiring a Florida tan that has made him the envy of his new Hanover associates, John will spend the next few months at Halsey Edgerton's elbow getting ready to take over the reins as College Treasurer on July 1. The missus and kinder will join him here next week.

Another recent '33 recruit is Burt Hack, who has taken up residence just across the river in Norwich. You will recall our story a few months back of our interview with Burt at the local hospital, where he was brought for repairs after getting thoroughly smashed up in an automobile accident in northern Vermont. We haven't seen Burt or Marion since they moved in, but we assume that he will commute to Bradford, where Burt makes his headquarters as one of Whiting Milk's top men in northern New England.

There are stretches along late winter and early spring when our correspondence tends to dry up for a spell—a drought, we might add, (or which we are at least as responsible as our friends—when we have to keep up with them as best we can. Among such incidental intelligence this past month was the news that Major and Mrs. Donald "Peg-leg" D'Arcy were of Governor Sherman Adams' '20 official party at the Governor's Ball in Manchester, N. H. a couple of weeks ago. It had been some time since we'd heard from Muggsie that Don had gone under the knife in a desperate effort to put his knee back in shape for a little skating this winter. Reading between waltzes and the Grand March, we assume the operation was a complete success.

We've been an extraordinarily indolent secretary in the matter of compiling records of "firsts" in the class, but we think we are completely safe in announcing that the first member of our class to achieve the high distinction of a college presidency is Evan R. Collins. The Board of Regents of New York State announced on February 25 that Evan had been appointed president of Albany State College for Teachers. Prior to his appointment Evan had been serving as Dean of the College of Education at Ohio University since 1946

Evan did his graduate work in education at Harvard. After obtaining his Ph.D. there he taught and had administrative experience in secondary schools in Massachusetts. In 1939 he was named assistant dean of the Harvard school, where he was associate editor and later editor of the Harvard Educational Review. From 1943-45 he served as chief of operations analysis in the Second Air Force. Our heartiest congratulations to Evan on his appointment and our best wishes for success.

While we're spreading "firsts" on the record we hasten to post another. Before we do, however, we must admit that we got a sense almost of personal fullfilment in this one. We recall a Sunday months ago when, thumbing through the Times we came across an ad with a picture of some guy who had switched to Calvert, and the mischievous thought crossed our mind of what a godsend something like that would be for this column in a dull month. Who said daydreams never come true? Who said '33 was incapable of switching to Calvert, too? It's happened, cross ma heart 'n hope tuh die.

Now, if you have a copy of the New York World-Telegram for February 15 handy, and you'll turn to the sports pages, you'll find a Calvert's ad and a picture of one of your old classmates, quoted as saying that he's "switched to Calvert because Calvert makes a much smoother cocktail." A much smoother cocktail, mind you. Don't you want to try it yourself, son, now, just to see? For no reason that we can put our finger on, exactly, this ad arouses about the same sentiment in us that perfume ads stirred up in a New Yorker writer recently. Noting 'he superheated nomenclature in that field, Tabu, Tailspin, Frenzy, Mais Oui, etc. he announced that he was planning to put a scent on the market that he would call Frigid, with a label indicating clearly that it was made up of a mixture of oil from dead flowers, a glandular extract from the male musk deer, and a morbid secretion from the sperm whale. What this country needs, obviously, is a rougher cocktail.

A couple of developments concerning Dr.Lewis Chester o£ New Britain, Conn. First, a son Samuel Dana, born January 11, their second; the first, Jonathan Paul, is 314. Second, Lew was recently made a Fellow of the American Otorhinologic Society for the Advancement of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Lew is in private practice in Hartford.

Secretary, 20 Valley Rd., Hanover, N. H.

Treasurer, 2812 Grant Bldg., Pittsburgh 19, Ta.

Class Agent, „ The Stanley Works, New Britain, Conn.