1931

First, my apologies for goofing last month's column. Other class secretaries have told me that such a day would come, but I never really believed it until that deadline was on me, past me, and then beyond all recall. It's a little bit like being seasick and having lockjaw simultaneously. You gotta ... but you can't. So - on to this pillar of pithy prose. A long-held letter from Beany Thorn:

"Attention old Outing Clubbers and old occasional hikers. The frau and I stopped in at Joe Dodge's in Pinkham Notch this summer and Joe wants to be remembered to all you arm-chair sitters and among his old guest books were some interesting items about October 29, 1927 (Yale game) when Jim Verity, Jack Gilmore, Red West, and Fatso Hovey stayed there, and again on February 25, 1928, when Joe Rushton and Rod Clarke checked in and March 2, 1929, when the clan really gathered to the tune of Joe Rushton, MauryWhittinghill, Don Stoddard, Vic King, Dave Larrabee, Rod Clarke to climb the headwall and Carter Notch via 19-mile Brook Trail to Gorham (who made the passes at the waitress there?), and a week later, Sey Burge and Nick Rogers wangled themselves on to the senior trip, and come next late spring March 8, 1930, the book has the childish signatures of Jim Laughton, Sey Burge, Russ Beckwith, Charlie O'Neill, Ed Flynn and Hank Burroughs, and in April Rog Donner and Bob St.Louis were there and in November, Johnny Feltner was around with Coach Otto (Stem Like Hell) Schniebs and finally on March 1, 1931, there was that famous senior Mt. Washington trip (by train with the DOC cannon) with Johnny Martin, Whitey Whitehill, Parker Pierce, Dan Kent, Charlie Dingman, George Conklin, Sher Guernsey, Jim Laughton, Ted Danforth, Nick Rogers, Ted Johnson, Jim Verity, Dean Chamberlin, Jack Cunningham and Jim McElroy, the above gents being those who signed the register, and the metropolitan papers told how we got blown off the mountain, which was almost true, and this all leads up to why we stopped at Joe Dodge's this summer which was to get some advice because three college boys, including my son and I, hiked down the Appalachian Trail after climbing Katahdin for eight days in the middle of hurricane Carol on which I should write a book some day, so ho-hum and good-night."

In the tempus-certainly-fugits department, an announcement reads, "Mr. and Mrs. Jerome West have the honour of announcing the marriage of their daughter Noel Rood to Mr. Charles Wesley Dingman II on Tuesday, the twenty-eighth of December 1954, Second Congregational Church, Palmer, Massachusetts."

By the time you read this, we hope the executive committee (or a substantial portion thereof) will have met in New York and devised the schemes, plans, campaigns, ideas, ideals, and modus operandi for the Class of '31 between now and the Big 25th.

A nice Christmas note from Pete Evans hasthis "vital statistic" from Ralph Maynard:

"I got married last summer to one Berit Rannveig Johannessen of Larvik, Norway. We call her Bitten for short and may change this, too. Used to be with SAS and is looking forward to our 25 th reunion since she has never been in the States."

There current address is Mariscal Sucre 354.San Isidro, Lima, Peru.

Also from the files comes this from JohnnyJohnson:

"After helping about 300 of the 82nd Seabees celebrate their eighth annual reunion in New York City, I recovered sufficiently to get up to the Dartmouth-Navy game and spent mostly an undergraduate weekend. This included sneaking into a 50-yard-line seat which I shared with a senior; you try sharing one of those stadium seats with anyone. The game was terrific for three quarters at least, the fall colors were magnificent, and the air was like new cider, balmy and just a touch of tanginess. In the midst of an undergraduate cheering section you got that deja vu feeling and sort of looked for Wally Fishers black bearskin coat or listened for Hovey's stentorian bass shouting "let's go Dartmouth'; and scuffling through the dry brown leaves on Topliff's lawn it would have been natural to crawl in the corner window and call on Art Ecker and Marty Zinn. I was staying on the fourth floor of Russell Sage, which they have moved to a new location just above the ninth floor. The evening bull sessions had a familiar ring and I got my Spanish homework done, which is more than I would have done in our time. Come the morning, I'm in the washroom peacefully scrubbing my teeth when one of the students comes in to shower and says friendly-like, 'Say, I haven't seen you on this floor this year.' (Some of the tooth paste is still plastered to the ceiling.) Yes, Doug dear, I am giving serious thought to resigning from the class of '31 when I get my degree from Middlebury (MA in Russian) next summer and join the Class of '55- In fond memory of you, I will propose that we adopt your class motto: No matter how old you are, you're always '55. (Ouch! just felt a twinge of my lumbago.)"

Incidentally, it appears that in one of the recent columns, I got Ed Picken and NedPitkin mixed up. Ed, not Ned, is the Troy coach, and Ned, not Ed, is the head of the Loudonville Schools.

During December, Johnny Benson and family and Frank Hodson and son spent a couple of days in Hanover.

And now for a closing touch of soap box. All of us have been hearing a lot recently on both sides of the Dartmouth football situation. At times, I have been unhappily in the presence of some fairly violent proponents and opponents of one philosophy or another. Naturally, we are all concerned about this, and we prefer seeing the Big Green being really big on the gridiron; but I'm becoming a little bit concerned about the total effect of this issue on the alumni body. The greatest asset Dartmouth has is not its physical plan or its endowment or any of those other mechanical things ... it's the remarkable cohesiveness and continuing affection of its alumni body and spirit. Nothing - absolutely nothing! should be allowed to dilute or diminish this one iota. I feel sure that Red Rolfe and his cohorts will come up with the right answer; and the question of football should stop being a cause for even the slightest alumni friction. Enough! Keep on being '31. See you next month.

AS A MILK PROMOTER Mendes-France hasnothing on Alex McFarland, 1930 class secretary, who carries out the motto on his carplate, acquired in Vermont.

Secretary, Lambert & Feasley, Inc. 430 Park Ave., New York 22, N. Y

Treasurer, 1512 Spruce St., Philadelphia 2, Pa

Memorial Fund Chairman,CHARLES S. MCALLISTER 224 Beverly Rd., Scarsdale, N. Y.