1900
A very nice honor has come to Charles, son of our Charles Proctor. It was recently announced at Squaw Valley, Calif., that he was made a new member of skiing's Hall of Fame. Charles Jr. was a member of the U.S. Olympic Ski Team in 1982. He has been all his life, and still is, an ardent devotee of skiing. Congratulations Charles Jr., and the older Proctors as well.
An interesting letter has come to me from Stanford University, Calif., relating some of the high spots during the past year in the life of the family of Olivia, daughter of Oliver Foster.
The outstanding event was the birth on Oct. 19, 1958 of the Allaways second son, Ben Foster. Olivia says of him: "At eight weeks Ben is a real cherub, he eats and sleeps the way the books say, and smiles and gurgles happily in between." The fly in the ointment, as I see it, is that now there are three males in the family, and in all important family affairs, Olivia is outvoted three to one. In the light of this overpowering male superiority, what is going to happen in this heretofore well regulated family? The first son, now three years old, is a crew-cut dynamo. He takes his role as older brother quite seriously and goes around inviting all the Stanford freshmen to come up and see what a miracle Ben is. "Luckily" says Olivia, "they decline." Bill and Olivia are both active in university affairs. Bill has received additional duties as assistant dean of men.
The family has enjoyed various skiing trips, one to Reno, Nev., the divorce paradise, where the skiing was Of the best. Then during the summer they tripped around a bit in California exploring the coast, the Mother Lode country, and spent a happy week at Fallen Leaf Lake which is near the southern end of Lake Tahoe. While there they took a side trip to Virginia City, - the historic mining town where it is alleged Mark Twain got his start in journalism. It is evident that the Allaways, young and old, enjoy each other, and 'are having a thoroughly happy time living in a university environment.
I have just received word from Loring Dodd that his wife, Ruth, is convalescing from a ruptured appendix and an attack of peritonitis. At this writing she is getting on splendidly, and they are rejoicing in her recovery. Loring has written a very interesting article apropos to his visit to the Governor Fuller collection of paintings, a part of which have been on exhibit at the Boston Museum. This article appeared in the Worcester Gazette of Feb. 10, 1959. He tells an amusing commentary on Marcel DuChamp, an introducer of cubism, who startled the artistic world in 1913 with his "Nude Descending the Staircase." One critic described this as an "explosion in a shingle factory," and Loring himself added "that most people after painstaking research could find neither the staircase nor the nude." He makes some delightful remarks about the Fuller Collection itself, and sums it up with the remark that "it has been assembled with rare judgment and taste."
An optimistic note has come from Mary, wife of Harry Fairfield, who is teaching in a children s school at Darien, Conn. Mary ardently insists that: "We are only as old as we think we are, and that is why I love working with childhood. Age doesn't count in this private school for retarded children, in fact, age should not be counted anywhere." Here is a good bit of philosophy about life which certainly warrants a hearing. Mary writes that her nine grandchildren are fast growing up. A number of them are now in college at such varied institutions as Univ. of Calif., Springfield College, M.I.T., Cal Tech and Univ. of Calif, at L. A. It is interesting to note that among the nine there is not a girl. It frivolously might be said that this is a real "He-Man" family.
I am sorry to report that Embert Sprague's wife, Addie, is in a nursing home at Brewer, Me., and is in a very serious condition. She has to have constant care as she can do little for herself. This is indeed a sad and regrettable situation.
Charlotte, Chan Sanborn's wife, has been visiting her daughter, Elizabeth, in Dallas, Tex., and on her way home stopped off in Ohio for a visit with her daughter, Miriam. One of her grandchildren is a senior at Phillips Andover Academy. On two occasions Charlotte has driven down to Andover and brought her grandson back to Tilton for long weekends. The young man is college-bound, but at the time his grandmother wrote me, he had not decided at what college he would try to enroll.
Alvah Fowler's wife, Martha, has sent me a most enthusiastic report of her trip to Europe last summer. She says: "It was a most wonderful, spirit-lifting trip; it was like a peep into an enchanted world." Being a good Californian by heritage, she especially enjoyed the flowers which, in every country she visited, greeted her and put on for her their best show of color and fragrance. She speaks reverently of the age and sheer beauty of the cathedrals with light glinting through and setting off superb colors in the ornate stained glass windows. Glorious paintings, fascinating people, odd customs and costumes, towering mountains, decorous cities, and glittering countryside in all of the eleven countries visited were alluring and thrilling. And to climax her tour, she reveled in the leisurely journeying through England and Scotland. It is certainly something of a triumph, for one of Martha's years, to make such a trip, and perhaps even more of a triumph that she carried with her all the enthusiasm and love of beauty of a young girl. Undoubtedly because of this attitude, she has brought back a store of refreshing and beautiful memories which will ever be hers.
Secretary, 3 Pleasant St., Hanover, N. H.
Class Agent, 34 Carruth St., Dorchester, Mass.
