1945
Meager pickin's this month. This is the time of the year when most of the news that might be coming my way is channeled to the editor of the Mail Call. For years now I have been hurling verbal brickbats at Bill McKenzie, condemning him for being a hoarder of information, a dealer in black-market news, and a '45 facts-and-figures monopolist. Now, just as I was going to bring my heaviest guns to bear, I find that my target has moved. For, after many years of faithful service, Bill has retired from the fray. And for his always successful efforts we award him with all sorts of leather medals and cardboard trophies. (Seriously, though, it is only through the efforts of such fellows as Bill McKenzie that our Class is able to maintain its high standard of achievement. For the work he has done and is doing we can only say, "Thanks, Bill, we appreciate it.")
Well, with the retirement of Mr. McKenzie, it was necessary for me to shift my tactics, for X was now dealing with an unknown quantity in Harry Hampton. Should I go begging to him on hands and knees, saying, "Please, Mr. Hampton, just a few items of interest?" Or should I blast him to his knees with the same type of barrage that I had been launching unsuccessfully at the impregnable Mr. McKenzie, '10 these many years? Surely such a verbal broadside would penetrate his not-yet constructed defenses! You want to know what my final decision was, what final line of attack was decided on? Probably not, but here's what happened. I did nothing. He beat me to the punch. He extended the olive branch. He said he would send me the news he didn't use. He even flattered me by saying that perhaps what he was writing was below the dignity of my conservative column, and I wouldn't be interested. I'm overwhelmed! McKenzie used to send me his old information slips, too. But only after he had gleaned the last bit of info from them and run them through the washingmachine several times to get the last bits of dirt out. By the time I got them, about all there was left was an old change of address which the College had sent me six months previously. Not that he hogged all of the news during the spring and summer! Just 98% of it. 50... it looks as though I might get some information that is still warrti, that has some aura of life about it. Don't give up. Between Harry and me, we'll get that news about you out to the rest of the Class before the end of this millenium. Welcome to the literary line-up of the Class of 1945, Harry, share-the-wealth and we'll get along fine. Don't share it and you'll get along fine. And if your latest efforts are any indication, I'd say that you will fill Bill McKenzie's shoes nicely, a tough job to say the least.
Even though there wasn't any great quantity of news this month (the result of this dearth being what you have just waded through), I am not lacking in quality, for I have a wonderful letter regarding the whereabouts and activities of one Fletcher Clark. The Clarks, according to wife Freddy, who wrote the epistle (Fletch's letter-leanings being slightly soured by the note he sent to Uncle Sam on March 15), have been sent by the Turner Construction Co. to Marmora, Ontario, to assist in the construction of an iron-processing plant for Bethlehem Steel. Allow me to quote from the letter: "There are 1,150 inhabitants here and they gave us a royal welcome.... Our 5-year-old Lisa is very loyal to the Queen and faithfully sings at the top of her lungs 'God save Her' while swinging on her swing.... All this to the great delight of her new neighbors....
And the beer in Canada is something to write home about.... Makes 'Buds' look pale." And Freddy goes on to tell of a sleighride "over snow and frozen lakes for miles and miles. The temperature was 18 below that night." A swell letter! See you two a little over a year from now.
The bachelors' association is losing another member, according to my old home-town newspaper, the Newton Graphic. Seems as Jack Skakle is engaged to Miss Nancy Aldrich Buckley of Leonia and Beach Haven, N. J. She attended Wheaton College and is a graduate of Syracuse University. I know that Skakle, Nancy; keep your eye on him.
And in closing, a reminder to '45s in the greater New York area that monthly luncheons are held at 12:3° on the first Wednesday of each month at the Dartmouth College Club. And don't forget the Fund. This is May and we've got a long way to go yet. Stan Newton,Harry Hampton, and the Assistant Class Agents are giving both time and money. How about you?
RECENTLY APPOINTED: Ashley W. Burner '46 has been chosen public relations director of Anderson & Cairns, Inc., New York advertising agency. For five years he was with Fairchild Publications.
Secretary, Middlesex School, Concord, Mass.
Class Agent, 51 High St., Leominster, Mass.
