Catching Up with Evie Petot '22

Classmates, no doubt, sometimes wonder what's happened to some fellows who are lax in publicizing their comings or goings, or their accomplishments. One member of the "lost battalion" in '22 is Evie Petot who, during his sojourn on the campus, got to be quite a figure.

Evie came to Hanover from the University School, Cleveland, where he was captain of the track team. His specialties were the 100-yard dash, the 220, and the 440. He was a speedy guy. Harry Hillman had him run in the 440 relays, and Evie used to pace Tommy Thompson, the great Dartmouth hurdler, in his practice runs.

Track wasn't Evie's only proficiency. He was an accomplished banjo man who played with the original Barbary Coast orchestra which was organized by his frat brother in Deke, Bill Embree '21. Evie was a good student, but, because of his musical activities, took so many cuts his studies suffered. His father, who operated a chain of shoe stores in Ohio, found out about Evie's study neglect, called him home and suggested he settle down and get married. The young man had met an attractive young lady by the name of Esther Jones who attended Smith College. Evie courted her and proposed, and the first thing she knew, she'd accepted him. They were married and Evie settled down.

You '22 guys are likely asking how an old bird in the class of '09 knows all this about a member of your class. It so happens that I live in Aurora, Ohio, where Evie bought an old homestead in the early '40's and I was the first villager to call on him. We had in common a liking for banjo music. While I can't compete with Evie as a banjo man, we got together in impromptu combos and had some enjoyable sessions. Then Evie got out of the habit of playing and all of ten years slipped away without his touching the instrument. I kept up with my music, however. One Saturday in 1958 I went over to Evie's house and told him frankly that it was a shame he was letting his musical talent go to seed, and he agreed. He dug up his instrument, found it had a split head and needed re-fretting. As soon as it was fixed we got to putting in an hour or two Saturday afternoons. It wasn't long before he was back in his old-time form.

We've had a lot of fun with our music and have worked up a repertoire of 175 or more numbers, and have put together a little act that we have presented to folks at the Portage County Home, the Veterans Hospital at Brecksville, Ohio, and recently at the annual luncheon of the Associated Grocers Manufacturers Representative in Cleveland, of which Evie is a member and former president. Our next engagement will be at the Massillon (Ohio) State Hospital.

After leaving Hanover, Evie joined his father in the shoe business, but when it was sold in the late 20's he became associated with the Hormel Packing Company as district manager in Ohio. He and Esther became the parents of a son, Charlie, who grew up to be much bigger than either forebear. Charlie attended Michigan State, served in the Marines, got married, fathered three sons, and is living in Pittsburgh.

Evie is an ardent Nimrod. He likes to hunt and fish. Every summer he goes north for his fishing, and in the fall he and Charlie and two or three cronies head for South Carolina for wild goose shooting. A classmate who visits Evie in Aurora every so often is Spic Saunders who has done well as a representative of R. R. Donnelley & Sons, the world's largest printers, in Chicago. Spic has done so well, in fact, that he's ready to retire to an estate in the Caribbean.

Ask Petot or Saunders, or many other classmates, what's cookin' with you? and the usual answer is, "Nothing much ever happens to me." Oh yeah!

Petot as a track man