1934
As we write this, March has just taken it on the lamb (in the East, that is—reports from further west indicate a more leonine exit), the New York Flower Show has bloomed and faded and the sap is running freely in our Royal portable. More freely than usual, we mean. All of which constitutes warning enough that a firm rein be kept on the skittish little mill or it's Run For Your Lives Men, The Dam's Burst! See there? Mixing metaphors already! Before the disloyal Mr. Royal get's horsing around any more, we'll now fence him in with a period, and a promise to dish up the month's class facts pronto, straight from the feed-bag, whinny-nilly.
Baby of the month is John Grabau Emerson who appeared on March 12 in Winchester, Mass. This makes it four sons for the DickEmersons and two cakes on that day, it being Pop's birthday also. Dick figures they've got a fair chance now to get at least one guy into Dartmouth, just on the law of averages alone. Meanwhile they expect to move into a new ranch-type home in Winchester within a coupla months.
Bride of the month is Miss Helen Berneice Whitmore, of Tuttle, N. D., who was married February 22 to Frank Everts, in Southport Conn. Helen and Kib will make their home in Chevy Chase, just outside of Washington where he is with the Commerce Department and she formerly was with the Office of For. eign Agricultural Relations, Department of Agriculture. This item courtesy of the Bridgeport Post.
The N. Y. Herald Trib for March 12 contained some good news, too. There in the financial pages was a large picture of BobOare with the intelligence that this worthy has been elected to the newly created office of vice-chairman of Associates Investment Co., for whom he had been legal consultant and director.
Meanwhile, from the moneyed land of the unpinched snap-brim comes word that the Wall Street house of Lazard Freres now boasts Les Reeve as general manager. Les has made steady progress with this prominent firm of financial underwriters, having most recently been their syndicate man. Mention of Reeve brings to mind another charter member of the Hot Tip & Tiffin Society of Lower Wall Street, Bob Ford. In a letter from his new center of activities, the Nation's Capital, Bob asks "Anybody heard from Rigby?" Then he answers himself with "Well I did, and also joined his cocktail party at the Statler last Sunday (Feb.). Hank was in town to appear before a Senate investigating committee regarding 'Pensions for Aging Peck-Horn Players.' " Bob himself is prominent on a committee—running the big annual dinner of the Dartmouth Club down there. Set for April 25 and features President Dickey.
A switch now to Dayton, Ohio, whence comes a peach of a note in the hand of BillEmerson:
"I am still here working for Monsanto. My work continues to be organic chemical research, mostly on new chemicals and processes. During the last few years I've managed to get around fairly regularly to American Chemical Society meetings. At any one in, the east I can usually plan on a reunion with Charlie Levesque. He's with Rohm and Haas in Philadelphia and doesn't seem to get out this far very often. Here in Dayton Sam McCray, BobCorwin and Bob AicCloskey are all active in Dartmouth affairs. Sam and Bob C. are both lawyers and active in local Republican circles. Bob was our distirct Stassen delegate to the convention last summer. Mac is with Frigidaire, in market research I believe. He has been on the entertainment committee for the Dartmouth Club here, and was particularly active in connection with the Christmas party this year.
"In January I went down to the annual banquet of the Cincinnati Club to hear President Dickey speak. I had a fine reunion with Bill Fischback whom I had not seen since college. I also saw DickBarrett and Chet Birch, whom I also had not seen for a long time.
"When I get east in the summer I usually see my cousin Dick Emerson. This last June he was busy with plans for a new house in Winchester, which I understand is now nearly completed (editor's note: just string along with us, Dick, that house will be as famous as Mount Vernon before we're through!). The life insurance business seems to be agreeing with him. Last spring I ran into Cleveland banker Swede Lindstrom in the bar of the Biltmore Hotel here. I was taking on a bit or fuel before giving a chemical talk to the local section of the American Chemical Society. The extra load occasioned by the reunion had no deleterious effect on the talk."
Ohio is the scene again, this time Toledo, and Frank Parmelee.
"It occurred to me that you might find something of interest in the attached transcript of? broadcast I made today (Feb.) for the UNESCO people. It is much too short to mention what found in Greece (damn depressing), Turkey (more hopeful), Spain, Portugal or the Sudan. But—I d0 have some material for a bull session or two, most of it too controversial, and a little long-winded tor notes. I plan to be in Europe for three or four months, beginning in late April." The en. closure is a sparkling report of Frank's recent three-month swing around Africa. Wish we had room to quote from it at length. Here are excerpts.
Parxnelee on the Belgian Congo: "The accomlishments of the hard-working Belgians in the congo are very impressive. They are indicating the same aggressiveness in developing the Congo which has made Belgium the first of the war-torn contries of Europe to' show substantial recovery. Leonoldville has a population of about 125,000, of whom only 8 to 10,000 are Europeans. Nevertheless it has good sanitation facilities, clean shops, and a tempo of life which is unexpected in the tropics The Bata shoe factory presented a typical contrast. About 500 workers were making very good canvas and leather shoes, all for use in the Congo with modern machinery, and yet I didn't see a native worker in the whole plant who was wearing a pail: of; shoes!"
On South Africa: "It is a land of rich mineral potential, and new gold fields are now being opened in the Orange Free State, one of the four provinces. But there are problems other than the technological one of mining and reducing the ore. The permanent success of the Union will depend on the elimination of the insects fatal to cattle, a conservative program to reduce erosion and encourage reforestation, irrigation, and the establishment of harmony among the people. You have seen recently a great deal in the papers about the clashes between the Zulus and the Indians in Durban. It is a serious problem. Incidentally, one of the finest books I have read on South Africa is Cry the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton, which deals with the Zulus."
QUESTION: YOU mentioned the Kruger Game Reserve, Mr. Parmelee. Can you tell us something about that? ANSWER: "I was very fortunate to spend a weekend in the Kruger National Park, which consists of 8000 square miles of unfenced high and low veldt in its natural state. From our car we saw game of all types, including one pride of 12 lions, many hippos, giraffe, elephants, baboons, zebras and the very lovely deer-like animals such as impala, duiker, steenbuck, ring buck and many others. Without any question, the pleasure of seeing these animals in their natural surroundings was my number one travel thrill in the 40 countries I have visited since the end of the war. There are other places in Africa where one can have similar experiences. For example, in Nairobi we finished our work early one afternoon and leaving the hotel at 4 o'clock drove about five miles into a nearby reserve similar to Kruger, where by 4:30 we had seen 16 lions!" Thank you Frank, for a delightful travelogue. Let's have your reactions to Europe when you get back.
Here's a short note from Mike Joseph advising that he can't make the April N. Y. Dinner. Family fine. No complaints. No startling news. Unfortunately the function in question took place just too late for inclusion in this column. We'll give it some space next month. Meanwhile, all of you who are within striking distance of Monroe, N. Y., don't forget the big picnic scheduled for June 11 at Bob Smith's place. Make sure that calendar is marked with a big green circle!
And here are the names of three of the boys who checked in at the Hanover Inn on different dates in March: Don Crowther from Hartford, Ike Powers from Boston and Harry Wallace from Wellesley Hills.
Now for the second straight month we're gonna break the rules. But somehow we don't think the Editor will mind; and we're sure you good guys won't mind either. Except, to tell the truth, we do expect one squawk—from 'he genuinely modest subject of a letter which came in a couple of days ago. This note was signed simply "'34," and beyond that we don't know from nothin'. All we know is that it expresses superbly something all of us have felt f°r a long time now. And it suggests a splendid course of action, too. The note's anonymity lends it strength, we think. Because, signed and is, it seems to speak for the whole Class. And it speaks to the whole Class at the same t'me. Let's look.
"Dear Jeff: Ever stop to wonder how many of our class have been back to Hanover since June 1934? Must be a lot that haven't made it. But we're lucky fellows. Every spring we have Dartmouth delivered on our doorstep.
"And Dartmouth really does come to life again in those remarkable letters that BillScherman sends us annually and which, miraculously enough, seem to grow better every spring. I often wonder how the guy manages so unfailingly to be nostalgic yet never maudlin, literate yet never literary, persuasive but not argumentative. Somehow he manages to express the way I feel about Dartmouth better than I ever could myself.
"Strangely enough (mebbe it's that depression jinx still haunting us) when the totals are in for the year the class of 1934 doesn't seem to finish out front—not even in our own heat, weight for age. As a matter of fact we've been known to finish out of the money. And that's not the kind of support those Scherman letters deserve. If you don't believe me, try reading some of the letters the other classes get.
"So here's a suggestion. Why not make 1949 a sort of Scherman Special? Let's all give all we can for the most important cause of allthe College itself. And then, right when it pinches, let's chuck in another ten percent to show Scherm we appreciate those letters. Who knows—we might even boot the little man home in front in this year's 'Middle Aged Medley'. How about it?"
Well, gang How about it?
Secretary and Treasurer
no Fulton St., New York 7, N. Y.
Class Agent, 1038 Clay Ave., Pelham Manor, N. Y.
