1932
The first half of the century ended with a full measure of Christmas spirit around our house. The traditional nine-foot tree was topped with the same six-pointed star we have used every year since the time the first day of Hanukah and Christmas fell on the same date. As far as I could detect the benign Santa brought every little thing the children wished for. A few big things that would come handy are still out of our grasp, such as the piano and a new car, but, thank Allah, we still have no television set nearer than the next door neighbor's. One of the fine things about the season was the fact that A. Rebecca's (age 3) unexplained fever had been conquered by sulfa and penicillin before the big Eve. For the benefit of anyone similarly situated, I'll add that we got sulfa pills in her by powdering them and injecting them surreptitiously into a banana. I don't think they did much good. It was also good fortune that Julia (7) didn't get her fever until just after Christmas, and the sulfa and penicillin had her feeling pretty well again before Michael (9) got his just after New Year's. If you count your blessings carefully, you find they add up nicely.
Everyone visits Washington sooner or later. The best season, of course, comes later, in the Spring, but during the times when the trees and the flowers are not at their best, visitors can always be entertained by the permanent performers on the political stage and by the historical and cultural displays. Members of the Class of '32 will, naturally, also want to telephone the class secretary and, even if we cannot get together, pour into his ear about a paragraph of grist for this mill. Dick Hazen, who was here during December, gets a medal for effort despite the fact that I was in the inevitable meeting when he called at my ofice. I hope everyone will persist hereafter in tracking me down, because no meeting is so important that I can't come out and talk on the phone to a travelling classmate.
John Clark recently came through Washington on some kind of half-train-half-auto trip with one of his sons. No medal, though.........
I find that a trip of some kind is most often the occasion of my hearabout a classmate. Whenever anyone stays at the Hanover Inn, for example, I receive notice of the visit. Thus, I am informed that Sunny Foley was there in the middle of December. By an interesting process of reasoning I was also informed of the visit of Senator Ralph Flanders, around Thanksgiving. The Senator received an honorary degree the year we graduated, so his activities are thought to be of special interest to us. Since I can obtain a good deal of material on him, I shall draw on it whenever the pickings are too lean on the activities of others of our contemporaries. Verb sap.
Whit Daniels took a trip to New Work early in December to attend the meeting of the Public Relations Society of America, in his capacity as Director of Public Relations for Cornell University. A speaker at the meeting was Howie Sargeant, and they had a brief chat, resulting in my hearing about both their trips. I'd like to hear more about the travels of all of you. I learned a long time ago that the Jefferys had migrated to Arizona, and once I was told I'd soon learn why, but I'm still puzzled. By great good fortune I picked up a letter that Alex Christie wrote to someone else last August telling all about his travels, and I commend it to all of you as a model of what you owe to the rest of us:
"After I got out of the Navy—surplus property disposal work—in the spring of '46, Helen, Sharon and I took a trip to Florida and then I went back to work for Grant's again, this time in Chicago. I rather soon got fed up with that set-up and resigned in Feb. '47. In March I went with Sears—no, I did not join the 52-20 club—and in June 1 moved to Texas where I have been the Sears soft lines merchandise manager ever since here in Houston. We have two large, fine and beautiful stores here now and are in the process of building a third. With the three stores we will have an annual volume in excess of 35 million, which makes it a rather interesting operation.
"A week after we arrived in Houston we bought—we and the mortgage company—a brand new ranch type house in a very nice section of the city and settled down to Texanize ourselves. Surprisingly enough, I'm just crazy about it down here. As a matter of fact, my letters home have been so enthusiastic that my mother and father sold the home in White Plains and now live only five miles from us. The summers down here are long and hot, but our stores are delightfully airconditioned and the nights are always very comfortable. Frankly, I don't miss the snow, ice and slush a bit. Everyone says that Houston has an exceedingly damp and humid climate, but I just thrive on it. Not many of these people have lived in Boston or Chicago so don't know what a rugged climate is.
"Our youngster will be a young lady of 13 in Sept. She is 5' 6" tall and weighs 115 lbs. The Texas air hasn't hurt her any—she got all A's in her first year of Junior high school last year.
"It's a darn shame that the fellows of our class respond so poorly to the Alumni Fund. I really worked on the bunch in the Southwest area this year, but results were very mediocre. I spent a lot of time writing personal letters—several to each man—and I honestly don't believe it did a bit of good."
One of our widest travellers is Red Tucker, who is running the International Basic Economy Development Corporation projects in Venezuela. He rushed back to New York in mid-November to be on hand for the happy day when his new son John was born. Then he returned to Caracas. I understand that after another visit back here the whole Tucker menage will move to Venezuela for indefinite residence.
Dan Gage included a little current news in his Christmas card: "Our three daughters keep us on the go, but they are all pretty swell. The youngest two are pretty cute—3 and 2—quite a bit of company for each other. The oldest is quite a young lady, 7 now—2nd grade, etc. Dick Hazen spent an evening with us last summer; seems the same as ever. No word from Jeff."
Of all the activities in which we may engage probably those connected with Dartmouth are the most interesting to the rest of the class. It seems highly noteworthy that at least ten members of our class are serving as Councilors, regional chairmen, or com-mittee chairmen for the 1949-50 program of interviewing candidates for admission to the College. The following names have come to my attention in this connection: Bill Allyn,Marv Chandler, Frank Eggleston, Bill Gratton, Steve Harwood, Morry Hubbard, KenKendall, Bill Lieson and Len Salit.
The article by Professor Knight in the December issue, as was to be expected, stirred up a certain amount of heat among the readers. As may also be expected, I am expressing no opinion of my own on the merits, but I do want to call your attention to Ping Ferry's comments in the Letters to the Editor section —not, of course, to suggest my agreement with it, but merely to lead you to a letter from a classmate.
Secretary, 3909 North sth Street, Arlington, Va. Treasurer, 144 Brixton Rd., Garden City, N. Y. Class Agent, 3448 81st St., Jackson Heights, L. 1., N. Y.
