1921
What is it like to be an American observer in Japan? Bob Wilson finds it a country of paradoxes. Without any natural resources it is first in ship building. Long known as clever imitators, the Japanese are now innovators surpassing Americans and Europeans. Yet in all Japan there is no true sewer system. Second in the production of automobiles, the country has built no through roads, and a tour of northern Japan by car would be physically impossible. Right-angled roads, narrow roads preventing cars to pass, dirt roads - Bob is reminded of the ten days in 1924 he needed just to cross lowa on Route One because in his stripped-down Ford which almost quit he had to battle mud up to his hubcaps. Owing to Pearl Harbor the Japanese are considered aggressive, but Bob finds the masses so patient that they endure privations which would cause Americans on the dole to start a revolution. Bob is himself a paradox, a Brobdingnagian in Lilliput. In a tiny country, about the size of Montana, swarming with millions, he feels more alone than he ever did in London, Paris, The Hague, Brussels, Dusseldorf, or Tunis. But, working hard on the language, he may soon be able to communicate.
What is it like to be an American observer in Finland? Visiting Ambassador Tyler Thompson, Bob Burroughs learned that Finns in deep snow can cover more than 100 miles even on one of their short winter days when they start before sunrise by moonlight and end by moonlight. How? They ski in tracks developed after the first snowfall and continually reopened. No wonder the Finns in deep snows beat the Russians and established their independence. The Ambassador worked out for himself and Bob a jaunt of 14 miles in weather 12 below zero. During the last two miles, Bob gave thanks that the distance was not 15. This is not to say that Bob was not in good condition. He was, topnotch, the result of 21 days of down-mountain workouts in Switzerland.
Bob's and Martha's adventures interest Bord and Burd Helmer, for Tyler and Ruth Thompson are close friends with whom they play games summers at Hancock Point, Me. Burd and Bord praise the little cargo-passenger ship, Grace Line, which transported them to Peru, but the ratio of time afloat to time ashore was cockeyed unless one were half dead. They did manage to overcome claustrophobia by flying into Ecuador. Bord recalls his skiing days when once his boot split off and his ski sailed down 60 miles an hour into the lift line to create consternation. "Funny thing —my family refused to recognize me," says Bord. Interested in theology, he would like to write a book about "the true brotherhood of man on our little planet," the completion of his thought in a New Republic article in 1941.
Praise of the Santa Maria, Grace Line, en route to Peru comes from Bill and Teeter Alley, seasoned travellers with high standards, who find the food excellent, the service deferential, the staterooms luxurious, and the fellow-travellers agreeable.
What is it like to be a small-scale Vermont farmer? (Ray and Gertrude Mallary are big-scale.) From St. Johnsbury, HewittMoore in our freshman days was known to belong to the Never-In Club. Since leaving college he has been closely tied down to his native North Pomfret, and now he should be called President of the Never-Out Club. Only a half hour's drive from Hanover, he hardly ever attends reunions but hopes to show up at the 46th. With farming and livestock, vacations are non-existent. So is good help, crippling to a dairy owner. With the boys leaving home, the cows must be the first sacrifice when Hewitt cuts down. During apple season ladders are etched across the horizon. Who is to climb them? Apples raining from the skies flood cellars and barns. Press them and you get rivers of apple juice. It is sweet sentimentality to believe that it can all go into hard cider for winter pipe smokers spinning Al Foley yarns around fireplaces burning oak. But Hewitt and Dorothy like the life. She raises colts, trains them, and rides and drives them. The Moores have their own pond to swim in and fish in and their own land to hunt on.
What is it like to be a big-scale New York newspaper man? Herrick Brown retired, but Paul Belknap is busier than ever. Running the New York Office for Thomson Corporation, he is actively engaged in buying newspapers. Thomson controls no fewer than 21 dailies and is growing at the rate of 5 or 6 a year. One hears all kinds of excuses for spending vacations in Florida, but Paul's is perhaps unique. Check with Alex Youngerman. A year or two ago Paul bought a semi-annual hotel directory in Fort Lauderdale where weeks at a time he could combine business and pleasure. With offices at 10 Rockefeller Center he found Fort Lauderdale so dull and expensive that he transferred most of the operations to New York and now has an admirable excuse for avoiding Florida.
What is it like for a 1921 Texan to be expansive in oil? Manager of the Houston Office of Dellwood Oil, Sandy Sanders in three years since founding his little company has 47 producing properties, i.e. fractional working interests varying from to ¾ with other partners. Sandy reaches his office at 7 a.m. Golf? Formerly 75; now, 81. Here is news to interest Harry Chamberlaine,Hugh McKay, and Guy Wallick. Ella Jane in her studio is giving weekly three-hour painting lessons to four women pupils.
Though January in Kansas City was "wonderful, little snow and warm," Tomand Anne Staley, sceptical about February, left for Fort Worth and Houston.
In excellent health Al Dunn is occupied with Death Valley. Impressed with his work on it 26 years ago, the Park Service has asked him to restudy the situation and bring his findings up-to-date.
When football opponents reached the 10 yard line in our student days, Hoy Schulting found the goal easier to defend. In our retirement days he "gets up each day and thanks the fellow upstairs for the ability to do so." Why? Because he is no longer on the rat treadmill of selling. Now he may sit back and give youth the benefits of his knowledge and experience in solving insoluble problems. Time may be working to his advantage. But not always. When playing bridge with Mrs. Hoy as partner, he may be slow and misread her responses, but she is quick and smart enough to pretend that he is smarter and quicker. When overly perturbed, she goes bowling and gives the pins a hard time. Hoy does not know why he retains his large place in Rhode Island, but Mrs. Hoy does. It is the boat to be put into the water each spring and the fish to be caught.
Secretary, 33 East Wheelock St. Hanover, N. H. 03755
Class Agent, Box 764, Hanover, N. H. 03755
