1916

This is the first job done for the Class of 1916 from my new headquarters, Box 1998, Ormond Beach, Fla., and I hope all classmates who have some news to send or earth-shaking announcements will make a note of the address, just in case. If you are driving through Florida along the East Coast, you will find me at 310 Halifax Drive, Ormond Beach, a few blocks from John D. Rockefeller's old home, The Casements. We are in the middle of a block, and a dirt road leads in through the grove to where this house stands in the middle of a small and run-down orange and grapefruit grove, which furnishes us the main breakfast course for the trouble of picking it up. Bamboo grows high enough to screen our small second story porch, and we now wake up mornings to find the sun shining, the bluejays, cardinals and squirrels active all around. A hundred yards away is the Halifax River, and about a half-mile in the other direction is the Atlantic and in five minutes we can drive down onto the beach and ride all the way to Daytona and beyond. We haven't been swimming yet, although it has been warm enough, and now we shall probably have to wait awhile as a temperature of 35° is predicted for tomorrow, which is better than the 17° below I heard about for some place in Montana.

News is scarce at this moment, but there is excitement in Vermont. Ralph Parker has seen that there panther again. This is the first I have heard of the brute, which is gaining a reputation like that of the strange sea-monster seen annually in some loch or other in Scotland, or like the flying saucers. It seems a gent by the name of Hayden Pearson, in a letter published under the head of "Country Correspondence," was having supper with wife Blanche at the Greenfield (N. H.) Industries Coffee Shop recently when Ralph Parker, referred to as "a long-time acquaintance," came in.

"He told me," says Hayden, "that recently, a few miles above Bellows Falls, Vt., an animal crossed the road slowly about 100 feet in front of him in broad daylight. The beast exactly matched the description of the panther seen a year ago by the Hartwells of Acworth, N. H. It was tawny in color, about two feet at the shoulder, had a triangular cat's face and a tail about two feet long."

Since this item was preceded by an account of the class oration for the graduation of Sebago Lake Academy in 1919, and an arresting description of a lamb stew as made by the mother of Mrs. Wm. L. Cain, of Manchester, N. H., no one can rightfully say that Hayden got hysterical about the panther, and in fact, he brushes it off somewhat nonchalantly. But to a city-bred guy like myself, who gets irritated at the little lizards that keep turning up inside the house down here in the most unexpected places, Ralph Parker's panther takes on considerable importance. Now, I have hoisted a highball with Ralph in his own home, and can testify that he is a man who can take it or leave it alone, and I am inclined to believe that he really saw this panther, or be- lieves he saw one. I have no file of the Hartwells of Acworth and it may be, for all I know, that the Hartwells like to expand a good story, and maybe they saw somebody's dachs- hund out for a rabbit or two. But Ralph was so close to this panther that he could see it had a triangular cat's face, and to anyone like myself, who has never even heard of a triangular cat, this is a remarkable animal. Ralph did not say whether the face was like that of an equilaterally triangular cat or like that of a cat triangular in the good old isosceles way. Also, note that the cat was two feet at the shoulder, but we do not know if that means two feet high, wide or handsome. This story is something that Ralph should write up in detail for the archives, instead of passing it off as if it were a daily occurrence with him. Not even in Nashua do such things happen.

It seems I omitted from my Newsletter account of the '16ers at the Harvard game the names of Ken Tucker and May and Ted Gile, who gave a cocktail party for visiting '16ers after the game. John and Elsie Stearns opened their home for a follow-up cocktail party, and Alec served lunch in his room at the Inn prior to the game. As you read this in January, the football season will have been long past, so you can tuck your memories of it away, and spend your time looking forward to the Fortieth Reunion. You can't start too soon.

FLASH! Just got a card from Alec from Deerfield Beach, Fla. Where is that? No details on why he was there, but he was in a rush as usual.

Secretary, Box 1998, Ormond Beach, Fla.

Treasurer, 27 Concord St., Nashua, N. H.

Bequest Chairman,