1939
Just flimflammed myself out of two pages of copy by not getting this done and into Gen. Summerfield's hands before the deadline. Padded the first fifty lines with an Appreciation of Spring just before falling into bed last night. Leaped out of bed at 6:00 this morning ready to walk, eagerly, the ten miles to the post office, and landed in snow up to the seat of my jodphurs. Damme! I shall spare you fifty lines on The Last Snowfall and revert to our clippings.
"Grosbeak Gourmets Gobble Gratis as Guests in Garden," trumpets the Springfield (Mass.) Union for January 30.
"Williams Inn is for the birds," continues the Union, "and customers seem to like it that way, too. Inn Keeper John Treadway, also an amateur ornithologist and Berkshire birder, has the inn's large gardens planted in shrubs and berry bushes which the birds love.
"Electric heating cables keep a three-foot pool and a five-foot pool open with warm water through the winter. Pride of Williams Inn is a flock of more than 250 grosbeaks which alights each morning on a ton of sunflower seeds set out each winter by the inn's owner.
"Treadway started catering to the grosbeaks trade about twenty years ago when the flock numbered thirty. As the chirps got around Treadway kept moving the feeding trays closer to the inn. Now the birds scratch their way into a huge glass enclosure that juts into the dining room and while they (the birds) peck at sunflower seeds, the inn guests nibble at lobster."
"Before worrying about menus, fresh towels and door keys," the Union notes, Jack majored, appropriately, in biology, and then in preparation for the grosbeaks went on to study ornithology at Cornell.
Speaking of birds reminds me that the old pot-bellied seat pincher recently played host (heh!) to a meeting of his special committee to consider what to do about a Memorial Fund chairman. Those in attendance: Coulson, falconer, Jackson, Merriam, Neer, your correspondent and Harrison himself. The Chief has asked me to announce that he's preparing a Message on the Matter which will go forth soon to all hands.
Want to get ahead? "Put your teeth into one job and prove to everyone's satisfaction that you can do it for them better than the next fellow. The next step is to get on the ladder of management. The shortest cut to the management level is staying in one place and proving yourself on the job." Thus spake to a reporter from Printer's Ink, the publisher of Harper's Bazaar, Robert F. MacLeod, who now probably wishes he hadn't. For his pains, Mr. MacLeod got himself three columns in the February issue of that shiny rag, accompanied by not one but five portraits of himself in five winsome poses, all different. No doubt all traffic cops who read Printer's Ink are wondering why they haven't been advanced to commissioner.
Re-Sta-Co News, house organ of Recording and Statistical Corp., where "work assurance is happiness insurance," features the features of Ed Cummings in its February issue. The News fails to tell us just what Ed does, but does admit that he's head of his department "where proper estimating is an art, and correct procedure a necessity." (Perhaps he's Emily Post in disguise.)
In any event, the News tells us Ed spent four years with Rand, Avery, Gordon, Taylor as an estimator before joining Re-Sta-Co. Prior to that, he was editor of a grocery trade publication, a sports writer for the Lynn (Mass.) Item, and a 35-combat-mission B-17 pilot in the European Theater. He makes his home in Quincy with wife Martha, and son Ned, 9.
Were it not for the Brockton (Mass.) Enterprise & Times (Non-Partisan, Circ. 40,923), we would not know that Bob Field has been named sales manager of the Shoe Chemicals Division of Union Bay State Chemical Co., Inc., of Cambridge, Mass. Formerly associated with the sales department of U.S. Rubber Co., he has also done time as a lieutenant commander in the Navy during W.W. II, and as a commander therein during the Korean hostilities. Bob makes his home in Brockton with his dog and his cat and his wife Jean, and their three children, Bob Jr., John and Eugenie (13, 9 and 7). ,
We were speaking last month of merchant princes in our class. Let us continue.
Down by the stern and rockbound cost, BobBrown keeps the books for William G. Brown Co., Gloucester's leading department store, while Nancy keeps house, and young Bob, Doug, Bruce, and Diana Gay (14, 12, 10 and 6) get substantial discounts on all the new shoes they need.
Fred Fiigon also is a merchant, but he doesn't say of what. He does admit to being married to Jane, being the father of Gay, 10, and Valerie, 6, having his feet in such community activities as industrial development, Y.M.C.A., Country Club and "own business boards of directors" and loving small town life, all in Lewistown, Pa.
John Mitchell, too, is a man of some mystery. He and Phyllis make their home in Natick, Mass.; they have 2-year-old Julie Ann, he keeps busy with the general duties necessary to assist in the running of a small family business. That's all.
In a class by himself stands Henry Harwood. A partner in Luther Paul Co., oil and coal dealers in Newton, Mass., Henry is a member of the board of the Junior High School P.T.A., treasurer of the men's club of his church, chairman of a pack of Cub Scouts, and something undecipherable in the Boy Scouts. And then, just to show that this tires him not one whit, he is paterfamilias to Peggy and: Albert, 16, Kenneth, 14, Elizabeth, 12, David, 9, William, 7, Gordon, 5, Priscilla, 3, and Jane, 1.
Probably the only man in the class responsible for feeding more mouths is Jim Schofield, who runs a chicken farm down in Absecon, N. J. When Jim isn't busy with the chicks, he is Master of Cologne Grange, committeeman for the County Board of Agriculture, and active with the local cell of the Farmers Home Administration. He and Martha have one daughter, Ellen Claire, age 2, and their favorite pastime is square dancing until cockcrow.
Gudrun and Ralph Holben are now living in The Hague, The Netherlands, where he has a new assignment as ICA economist in the American Embassy. Ralph was formerly in the U.S. Foreign Service, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
A little brochure, touting G-E's corporate giving to American educational institutions, tastefully decorated with a chromo of J. Morea. Brown, G-E's supervisor of educational grants, distributing largesse on the greensward at Sweetbriar, serves to remind us that it's Alumni Fund time. By the time you read this, the 1956 campaign will be just about at the halfway mark. '39 Out! When June 30 rolls around let it not be '39 out in left field without a glove. Open your hearts and your wallets. Send your dough to Moreau. DO IT NOW!
Secretary, American Bankers Association 200 Madison Ave., New York 16, N.Y.
Class Agent, 25 St. Stephen's Lane, Scotia, N.Y
