1929

Now that the gay holiday season has passed, we face the new year full of hope and expectancy that all good classmates will keep their secretary informed about themselves. We like to keep in touch as time marches on.

To add to Herm Richardson's Christmas cheer, his name appeared in the headlines of the Boston papers for several days. He found himself, as Superintendent of Schools in the Town of Sharon, in the middle of a hassle concerning Christmas decorations in the schools. Some of the principals of schools decided that this Yuletide practice would constitute a violation of a school committee directive forbidding the teaching of religious doctrine or dogma. The School Committee left it to the individual consciences of the principals. And Herm was in the middle. According to the papers, he declared that the Committee had not ruled against Christmas trees and carols and that he had confidence in the principals, regardless of their decision. So, all was not so merry down Sharon way.

Herm Liss recently completed a successful campaign as Chairman of Special Gifts for the United Fund in the Boston area to make everything merry for him.

There are rumors that John Dickey has an epic tale to tell about the deep freeze up Swanton way over the New Year's weekend. He, Chris, and Sukie survived to tell the tale so we will leave it to Duke Barto to make arrangements for publication.

Karl Michael is happy these days. His long-sought swimming pool is in the process of construction and, when completed, it should be one of the best in the country.

Jack Blair has opened an office in Boston at 79 Milk Street under the firm name of Blair and Buckles, patent and trademark counsel. This brings Jack into Boston two days a week. The firm is retaining offices in Stamford, Conn.

Gerry Swope is a proud grandfather. The name of the grandson is undisclosed but we do know that he has his son Stephen to thank for such justifiable pride. At the time of this event, Gerry was in Jamaica. He would perhaps deny that he was down there sampling the rum.

Gus Weidenmayer was in Hanover recently to interview students of the Tuck School and visit with his son, Christopher, who is a senior at Dartmouth.

Trunkie Brittan has retired to Hanover and is succeeding Bob Monahan as class representative in the area. Bob retired because of the pressure of his arduous duties as a state senator.

Chris Born and his family are in the process of moving to New Haven. The project should be completed in March. As part of "cleaning house," he has sent us a lot of his old skulch pertaining to the 25th reunion. He thinks that we will find it useful for the 50th, if we live that long. We hardly dare to take it home for a resting place - we are loaded with skulch already. Skulch collecting is one of the rewards of this job.

Ed Darling was in Winchester last month to review "Books for Christmas" for the edification of the Women's Alliance of the Winchester Unitarian Society. The local paper informed us that our distinguished lecturer is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of English and has been associated with the Unitarian Organization since 1945. He was formerly a teacher and is the author of the book, "How We Fought for Our Schools," published by W. W. Norton.

Keep the new skulch coming.

Secretary, 10 Cranston Road Winchester, Mass.

Treasurer, 2 Gateway Center, Pittsburgh 22, Pa.