1926
WINTER CARNIVALNOW AND THEN
Over the years my good wife Helen has reminded me several times that she never had been to a Winter Carnival at Dartmouth. On the spur of the moment, two days before the opening of carnival weekend, I telephoned the Hanover Inn, and much to our delight they gave us one of the best rooms in the house. In the eyes of this old-timer Winter Carnival "ain't what she used to be." The thrill of meeting hundreds and hundreds of girls arriving at the Hanover-Norwich station, on special trains from Boston and New York, is a thing of the past. Today they just seem to drop in from the heavens above, or by automobile. The colorful and lavish outdoor evening of our times is no longer the "spectacular" which we were accustomed to forty years ago. Preceded by a modest display of fireworks (where was the band of yesteryear?) the carnival queen, and her court, was presented on the balcony of Hopkins Center to the small crowd which braved the twenty degree below zero temperatures.
The snow and ice sculptures on the campus, and in front of the fraternities and many of the dormitories were well executed indeed, - better than in our times. The magnificent and sumptuous carnival costume ball formerly held on the gymnasium floor of Alumni Gymnasium met its Waterloo many years ago.
Transportation to the ski-jump was either by private cars, by foot, or by Vermont Transit buses. Where were the horse-drawn pungs which, forty years ago, gave this a certain aroma and made this an event not to be forgotten? The ski-jumping conditions were excellent, and the crowd perhaps larger than ever. But we missed the trumpets which in earlier years would announce the take-off of each jumper.
The girls - hundreds and hundreds of them - seemed very, very young indeed. Yes, we are forty years older and perhaps that is sufficient explanation! Hopkins Center was a beehive of activity each evening with glee club concerts in Spaulding Auditorium, and a Players' production, "Threepenny Opera," in the Center Theatre. These were followed by dancing till 3:00 A.M. in the Alumni Hall of Hopkins. Many more uniformed police, both state and local, were very much in evidence throughout the town. Traffic on fraternity row (Webster Avenue) was one way. In the bitter cold of that twenty below night nearly everyone seemed to disappear from the streets, — many to attend the numerous fraternity house dances. All was quiet at Bartlett Tower and in the Bema. I repeat — The Dartmouth Winter Carnival "ain't what she used to be."
"Riding the Rails with Presidents" is the title of a three-page illustrated story which appeared early in January in the Worcester (Mass.) Sunday Telegram, featuring none other than Herbert H. Harwood, who, in earlier years was the general factotum for the New York Central System, laying the preliminary plans and seeing them through for hundreds of presidential campaign trains for the political greats such as Roosevelt, Dewey, Truman, Stevenson, and Eisenhower. With Roosevelt, Hub made nearly 150 trips in the earlier days when presidential candidates and presidents made their whirlwind whistle stops as they sped across the country on the rails. Today much of this is done by air.
Andrew J. (Swede) Oberlander steps up the ladder, this time to Medical Director at the home office of Prudential Insurance Company in Newark. Our hats are off to "Swede" on this further advancement. Ther Newark Evening News-of February 11 reports: - "Dr. Andrew J. Oberlander, medical director of the Prudential Insurance Company's regional office in Chicago, has been promoted to medical director in the corporate home office at Newark. He will assume the post as of June 1. Dr. Oberlander took the Chicago post in 1953 after 13 years with the National Life Insurance Co. of Vermont. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College, for which he won fame as an Ail-American halfback. He received his medical degree from Yale University and was on the faculties of Ohio State and Wesleyan universities. He was with the Navy medical corps during World War II."
Word comes from Homer M. "Bud"Shaver and his wife Audrey that they are thoroughly enjoying a retired life in Shaftsbury, Vt. Bud retired two and one-half years ago after having worked in the traffic department of New Jersey Bell Telephone Company for 34 years. Bud and Audrey have three children and six grandchildren. Their son Bennett '50 is with the John Hancock in Boston, and lives in Framingham. The retired Shavers live not far off Route 7 between Bennington and Arlington, and invite any of the class to stop by during the early spring, while en route to Hanover, to see the smallest maple sugar operation in the State of Vermont.
Our Class was well represented at the annual banquet of the Dartmouth Alumni Association of Boston held on January 31. Among those present were: Joe Batchelder, Henry Bixby, Henry Blake, Russ Clark, Ed Emerson, Ed Farnum, Hub Harwood, Don Norstrand, Hal Marshall, Stew Orr, Herb Redman, Bob Salinger, Hal Trefethen, and George Tully.
Dick Mandel, Chairman of the 1926 Memorial Collection Committee, reports that Baker Library has recently received for our Memorial Collection fifteen unusually fine books from E. Grosvenor Plowman '20, and from Miss Margaret Whipple of Bristol, N.H., a very interesting Bible printed in Windsor, Vt. Book illustrations, printed in New England between 1769 and 1869, are eagerly sought for our memorial collection. Should you have any such items (usually illustrated by woodcuts) which you would care to give' to this collection please contact Dick Mandel, Hickory Kingdom Road, Bedford, N.Y.
AUGUST INFORMAL REUNION
Don't wait too long before making your reservations at the Hanover Inn, or elsewhere, for our 1963 Informal Reunion scheduled for the weekend of August 16-18. The Inn has already assigned several of the ten rooms which were allotted to us for that weekend. Ed and Peggy Emerson have invited all to their summer farm in Proctorsville, Vt., for a buffet lunch on Saturday. Enough said!
One of our Illinois manufacturers sent the following which might be taken by me to be an accusation that I am too wordy: (Classmates in government service, please note!) "Next time you have to write a letter, a report or give a talk give the following a thought: There are 56 words in the Lord's Prayer, 266 in the Gettysburg Address, 297 in the Ten Commandments and 300 in the Declaration of Independence. A recent federal government order setting the price of cabbage, however, runs to no less than 26,911 words, according to the Illinois Manufacturers' Association."
A moment of suspense passes as George Pasfield '28 successfully opens a bottle ofchampagne won in a tie for best class attendance at the Alumni Association ofPhiladelphia's annual dinner. Class members present for the February dinner included the Pasfields, Williamses, McAvoys, Hestons, Frames, and Ernie Wright.
Secretary, Box 305, Elmwood Branch Hartford 10, Conn.
Class Agent, Apt. A4L, 281 Garth Rd., Scarsdale, N.Y.
