HANOVER'S EARLY BIRDS

SOME dozen years ago, when Bill McCarter '19 was launching his column on "The Hanover Scene," the present writer took over an issue and did one on "Hanover's Early Birds" - a topic in which Bill was not at all interested or qualified. Reading that page today is a sad experience, for close to half the individuals mentioned have joined Bill in that Valhalla of those who have loved the Hanover Scene and served the little college so well. Included in the list of the departed are Dave Storrs '99, Rip Heneage '07, Dean Rolf Syvertsen '18, Hal Gordon of Putnam's, and Harold Winn and Alex Thorburn and Jess Haff. Blessed is the memory of these "Early Birds" of yesteryear!

Happily there are survivors from among that earlier list and special tribute should be paid to Professor-Emeritus Fred Parker 'O6, still definitely on the chipper side and usually on hand as the clock strikes 7. Lately Fred has been arriving a half-hour later but he still checks Main Street time with that famous old Hamilton pocket watch and world events in terms of the Wall StreetJournal. Professor Leslie Ferguson (Mystery Hour) Murch is now also emeritus and has weakened to the extent of often delaying arrival until 8 o'clock or after, though every now and again, and particularly when fishing is good at Lake Mitchell, Fergie joins ranks once again with the "Early Birds." Professor Bancroft Brown, not quite retired yet, still stops for his Boston Herald at an early hour, though as an authority on gambling odds he has to admit that even in this Space Age chances are as much against finding the paper on time as ever they were in a slower day.

Harry Tanzi, somewhat in disguise on the cover of the October ALUMNI MAGAZINE, and now widely known as the Mayor of Hanover, is still auroral. He stops in for his 7 o'clock cup of coffee before he opens Tanzi's famous fruit and nut emporium; later in the day he may shut up shop with a sign on the window, "Gone Fishing" or "Trying to Play Golf." Professor Al Foley still makes it across the Connecticut for one of Hanover's first cups of coffee, joined with clocklike regularity by Professor-Emeritus "Doc" Griggs '02. Eddie Decourcey, long-time faithful trainer for the DCAC, never fails to be on hand for an early breakfast and then to cross the street to take charge of the daily papers dumped in front of the bookstore until Wilbur Goodhue or his assistants arrive to take over. Early callers at the Post Office, which still opens a little before 7, are cheered by lights across the street where Ward Amidon is already sweeping and dusting and getting., out the diamonds and fraternity trophies, or exchanging ornithological data with "Doc" Griggs.

Although there is no marked trend toward an increase in "Early Birds," there seem to be always a few new recruits. Gulf Oil's Bill Eaton '17, since his move to Hanover a few years back, has been a faithful early riser. A twosome, Mutt and Jeff like, who in these days always show early from across the river are Louis Aulis, the shoe doctor, and Fred Maurer, who cares for the animals used in research at the Dartmouth Medical School. The surveying crews working for Francis R. (Danny) Drury '26 show up in front of the Beefeater a little after 7, and with nice timing Dan himself comes round the corner from Vermont to check matters before departure. Other new "birds" are Sarah Naylor, secretary to the Hanover Board of Selectmen, and the Precinct's new meter maid, Officer Jean Leavitt from Wilder, anxious to get an early start on tickets for meter violation.

It is still as true now as it was in 1948 that the Big Shots rarely show before 9 or 9:30 and the added years have but confirmed the earlier observation that our picture fails to give much substance to that article of the old Yankee credo that early to bed and early to rise would put a man in the profitable post of director of the Dartmouth Savings Bank or make him a candidate for a deanship. Increasing realization of this fact, or more likely our rapidly changing times and habits, seem to have made real "Early Birds" a little less numerous than before. More and more places of business on Main Street delay opening until the respectable urban hour of 9, even though some oldtime employees often appear by 8, or earlier, and sit on the front steps waiting to go to work.

Our final 1961 word on this topic is an optimistic one. In 1948 we were pessimistic about the future of these odd chaps who appear on Main Street in summer and winter, storm or sunshine, come hell or high water, to greet the start of each new day. But we have changed our mind! There is still enough of the primitive in men to get some of them up with the sun and this will still be so long after we are gone. The College may get rid of 8 o'clock classes, but there are very few real "Early Birds" among the students anyway (except for those who deliver morning papers and sometimes they are erratic) and most faculty folk get breakfast at home. But so long as the bomb doesn't change our habits completely there's bound to be life on Hanover's Main Street by 7 in the morning - and even a bit earlier. What more can the "Early Bird" ask?