1908
Larry Symmes sent your editor a large envelope filled with letters from classmates in response to his appeals for dues but most had little news and he could extract only the following notes.
Ted Barnes replied to my charge that he was one of the silent members of the class by the following list of his activities. "Since my retirement from active work in textiles ten years ago my hobbies and other interests have left very little time for just sitting, rocking, and looking out the window at the view and the passing people. Regular meetings of two bank boards and the local hospital of which I am a secretary are my main business interests. My house workshop, where I work, both in wood and pewter, occupy all available hours. I was fortunate to have some of my pewter selected by the Connecticut Craftsman Society to be exhibited at the New York World's Fair." Congratulations, Ted, and we are glad to learn of your activities.
Dolly Gray wrote to Larry Symmes re the transit strike. "In Sebastopol we never had a transit strike or snow storm, only rain and gophers. Come to think of it we don't even have a transit." (It must be an awfully dull place to live in, S. L. R.) "I'll be more glad than usual this year when April 15 comes. The numbers of suckers coming to get their tax returns concocted by me are increasing beyond comfort and I still find I'm not as young as I was fifty years ago. When the above mentioned 15th arrives a sign will be tacked on our front door 'Gone fishing.' "
Rosie Hinman reports to Larry S. from the Belleview Biltmore in Clearwater. "We plan to be here until the first of April. So far the weather has not been too good." Allan Perkins also to Larry S. "We have had a very quiet fall for Kate went to the hospital the first of October and is just now beginning to be up and around." Park Stickney also wrote. "The doctors are still fussing around with me, largely because of blood pressure, that doesn't want to stay put."
Henry Stone adds a cheerful note with his check. "Sometimes I wonder if I will ever write another, but until the scythe of time mows me down, every day when I wake up is a good day, no matter what the weather is." Keep it up, Henry. This is a welcome change from the doleful notes from most classmates. John Thompson wrote on February 15. "Lucille had been in the hospital. She is now out of stir as she expresses it and seems to be making favorable gains. ... We are in the process of giving up our house and becoming apartment dwellers. ... It seems that stair climbing is not for oldsters so we will be on one floor."
Bob Thompson also reports a month's stay in the hospital for a heart failure but adds: "Feeling first rate except for orders to do nothing and do that very leisurely. Hope to be back working mornings as usual before long. I don't like doing nothing." Art Wyman "bawls out" your editor for writing only bad news, then goes on. "These last two months have been spent off and on in Salem Hospital." Pity this poor editor! It's not his fault if "good news is no news" and classmates report only the bad.
For classmates and a few others who receive the " '08er" newsletter, your editor and Fred Munkelt collaborated to compose two tables of class vital statistics and life expectancies which are briefly summarized below. Fred had insisted that in reports of birthdays and ages, they should be based on the median or middle birthdates not on the average of birthdays, and the table compiled by your editor was based on that standard.
As of January 27 there are 72 living, interested, 1908 classmates and the median age was 80 years; with 36 - 80 years old or over and 36 who are or will be 80 years or younger. "Pop" Chesley, the patriarch of the class, will be 85 in July; Fred Hodgson, 84 years and George Lowe, 83 years in November. There are 10 classmates who are or will be 82 in 1966; 21 will be 81; 29 who will be 80, and 9 of us kids who will be 79. Roger Hill is the baby of the class, two months younger than your editor, who is four days younger than George Squier, and so it goes.
Freddie, at your editor's request, with the assistance of an insurance friend, composed the following life expectancies as of January 31. The base of the table was 257 in 1904. In 1958, the estimated number living would be 123 and the actual number was 130, and in 1966 the estimated was 64 and the actual 72. At our 60th in 1968 there should be 49 living; at our 65th in 1973, 21 living; at our 70th in 1978, 6 living; and in 1982, 1 survivor. Who will that be?
Your editor would enjoy similar vital statistics from other classes, both younger and older.
Class Notes Editor 13 Pembroke Rd. Danbury, Conn. 06812
Secretary, 120 Broadway, P. W. Brooks and Co. New York, N. Y. 10005
Class Agent, North St., Medfield, Mass. 02052
