1909

"Terse it up," says Charlie Widnayer, distinguished editor of the ALUMNI MAG. "Make the class notes snappy, concise, breezy, pithy, to the point, sententious and succinct." The idea is that they've got to cut six pages out of the back of the book which contains reports from alumni clubs, class notes and obituaries. Then they put other stuff in the front of the book, or the live news department. In that way they get in more coverage without increasing the number of pages. Pass the general idea along to the federal government.

O K, Charlie, my boy, let's go. The first item:

Hal Murchie has done it again. This time, the University of Maine conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, awarded June 15. Dartmouth beat 'em to it, however, by so honoring Hal in 1950. To refresh your memory, Hal was named Chief Justice of the State of Maine in 1949. If that guy don't watch out he's liable to be the most prominent member of our class.

Since his terrible auto accident over Decoration Day weekend, Buster Brown has been having tough going. After being confined in the hospital at Richmond, Va., for several weeks, he was moved to Mt. Alto VA Hospital, Washington, D. C. From reports, his broken right hip will be stiff and so will his smashed left knee. He'll likely be able to hobble around but dam if I can see how he's going to sit down. Of courage the guy's got plenty, despite the fact that he's been in a cast from his neck down for weeks. Buster likes to get letters from classmates and other Dartmouth friends. He enjoys reading detective stories and his favorite smoke is Pall Mall. (When you ask for it be sure to pronounce it Pell Mell, otherwise the advertiser gets sore.) Buster's address is 3850 Rodman St. N. W., Washington 16, D. C.

When Dutch Thorn was up North from his hideaway in Tampa, to escape the terrible Florida heat, he dropped in on Buster on his way back home. He visited friends and relatives for five weeks. His son Craig Jr. '31, was back to Hanover for his belated 20th reunion. His grandson Craig III and his youngest son Hudson were hoping to get to Hanover this fall in the class of '57, if they could cut the mustard. If not, they were going into the Navy.

Did you know that J. Arthur Swenson, the Swedish Thrush, took off the month of July for a vacation and spent it at his cottage at Straws Point, Rye Beach, N. H.? While there he called on Perley Storer in Portsmouth, six miles away. Perley, who retired some years back because of a heart condition, looks good, says J. Arthur—"I don't know if there's a younger looking man in our class hair gray, but a full head of it." Perley's daughter Ruth has taken honors in high school, was headed for the University of New Hampshire this fall.

Swenie also looked up another classmate Bob (Binger) Bruce, a successful accountant in Portsmouth. The Bruces, the Storers, Waldo Pickett '07 and his Mrs. were having a cookout (whatever that is probably a feedbag cooked outside Childs, you've got a bean on you). J. Arthur didn't stay, but he reported that Binger made a nice Tom Collins (whatever that is; I wouldn't know).

From the West Coast comes a letter from Sawny Reagan who lives in Berkeley, Calif. He worked hard on this last Alumni Fund Drive, but thought that '09 should have made a better showing. Right! "If I were successful in getting a mere acknowledgement from my many communications, a courtesy that could be reasonably expected, I would think I had accomplished something." Take heart, Sawny, the world is full of sleeping guys who are not prone to arise from the prone positions.

Parson Leon Morse, the sage of West Thetford, Vt., is still going big in his "Your Friend" column that appears in several New England papers. If any of you guys've got domestic problems, write the Parson. He'll solve 'em.

A couple notes received this summer from Nut Root, who's living a comfortable life of retirement in the Windy City of Chicago. Nut's patient little woman says she has to be patient to live with him.

Frank O'Brien's boy Junior has been elected a vice president of Metal & Thermit Corp., the company of which Sr. is president. Nice going, Jr

My little woman has been out to California since August 1, on account of the sickness of her aunt, 88. By the time this book is out she had ought to be home again. Meanwhile, daughter Becky and Lana the cat have been keeping house for me.

Speaking of traveling, Ruth Moebius, who's the wife of Art Moebius, '34 (they live in this charming Garden Spot of Aurora) was on a business trip with Art. In one of the towns where they stopped Ruth went into a local store and asked if she might visit the rest room. The clerk informed her that the rest room was undergoing repairs, then remembering his sales training, he added, "But couldn't you come back tomorrow?" The RavennaRecord and Courier Times Tribune, in reporting the incident, had a heading, "The Answer Was 'No'."

Oh, I do hope this is terse enough for Charlie.

Class Notes Editor, Pioneer Trail, Aurora, Ohio Secretary and Treasurer, Sandwich, Mass.