1912
News, did you say? Seems to be bogged down, for sitting here by the window on the Maine coast this late September day the fog comes rolling in again after a spell of ideal, but dry summer weather. The cornstalks have been pulled, the cucumber vines are no more, the lettuce has gone the way of all such tender plants, and now we are deluged with the late ripening tomatoes. Perhaps one should revel in thoughts of a swim in the briny, but that too is taking on the feeling of autumn and doesn't have the appeal which Connie Snow's "wild life pool" seems to have for him. One wonders just how long he indulges in this pre-breakfast cold bath. Connie writes he is working as usual and Katherine is gaining all the time. Last report from him told of no vacation since two weeks in Bermuda in April where he played 18 holes of golf a day for six days and found he was really lame after it all. He has been rising at 6 a.m., working in his garden for an hour, and then that swim. What a man at 79!
Lyme Armes' Guild of Pipe Organ Pumpers is steadily turning up new qualified members in 1912. In addition to Harry Barnett and Warren Bruner, already noted, Bud Hoban now comes with the information that he "pumped at the Episcopal Church in Claremont, N. H., for the better part of two years. No heat back there either, and I almost froze to death. Also, in the summer of 1907 three of us from our 1908 high school class took over the services at what is now Trinity Church in Cornish, N. H. We preached, played the organ, pumped the organ, rang the bell, and did whatever had to be done. What we did was dependent on who of the regulars didn't show up. I did a good deal of pumping there too." Then from John Brewster comes the news that he pumped the organ in St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Windsor, Vt., for five or six years about 1903-1907 at "15¢ per time" with bills rendered monthly. Sometimes when the janitor was away John rang the church bell, then ran around to the rear door and pumped for the opening hymn. For that he received 25 cents extra. To save for college, John also swept the bank building entrance, stairway and first floor for $1.00 per month, and worked in the department and grocery store 11 hours a day at 12½ cents an hour. We were all proud to see him and son Ted in Hanover in June.
Roy Lewis has sent us the Bicentennial Special Reunion Program for all Post 50 Year Classes. It follows immediately after Commencement and runs for three days. We shall hear the Glee Club, every evening a film and narrator, and on the second morning (Tuesday) a symposium panel "with participating top dogs pertaining to the occasion." No 1912 details yet except that it will be Brown dorm for us again. The College will ask for a check in advance for room and board. Make your plans now for June 16-18, 1969!
Chuck Tanger informed us that "at the ripe old age of 82 there are many more aches and pains than we had supposed our bodies contained when we were in Dartmouth." He details a Labor Day trek with his son to Easton, Md., where they put up at Tidewater Inn, a favorite hangout for Lyme Armes and Hap Wanner. The trip was replete in memories of the War of 1812 when the natives of St. Michaels drove off the British squadron, as well as with traces of the Civil War. Ned Richmond says Moorestown was really hot this summer, so much so he wishes he had put in air conditioning. On their way to a wedding in Harrisburg, Pa., in August Ned and Laona dropped in on Al Eiseman at Princeton. Ned is making plans for the Penn game in Philadelphia and expects to be joined by Jim and Carola Steen.
The Board of Directors and Medical Staff of the Holyoke Hospital tendered Art Kinne a dinner at the Wykoff Country Club on October 5, 1968 in recognition of fifty years of service. Sorry we were not able to attend. The menu looked very inviting. Congratulations, Art, you deserve it all. "There is a tremendous bitter and sweet quality to a birthday when one is climbing up the seventh decade," writes Stan Lovell. Speaking of the bitter and sweet, he says "Epictetus, you'll recall, preached the necessity of stoicism, the wisdom of not being torn apart by events about which you can do nothing." Then he goes on to philosophize further which only Stan Lovell can do. With Mabel he says, barring death and such other mishaps, he will hit Hanover for the 1912 reunion in 1969. For those readers who haven't seen Bill Shapleigh's August Billboard, Dorothy and Bill are now ensconced in their second and third apartment in Portland with four bedrooms, ' three full baths, walk-in shower, and two lavatories, with den, .living room, dining room and kitchen on second floor, all suited for entertaining friends. Who will be the first? He says it is like living in Yellowstone Park but no mention is made of any bears. As usual Bill has been traveling all over Maine. His next edition will probably be the Railroad Number when he recounts his trip as trainman behind the old steam engines.
Have you paid Fletcher Clark your dues? He is feeling poor and needs your check. It is inconceivable that any '12er could let him down.
From Elizabeth Park for "Dames and Datum" comes news that the Boston Dartmouth mouthWomen's Club held their Annual Fall Scholarship Fund luncheon at Beaver Hill Country Club in Stoneham, Mass., October 16. Of our best and devoted members we remember Chris Armes. For those of us preferring our home fireside the coming winter evenings we may circle the globe with Sydney Clark in his 22 books, All the Best . . . travel. Friends of Guy Swenson's tell of him enjoying summer at Rye Beach and that he is now home in Concord, N. H.
Since Bowdoin Plumer and Louis Ekstrom's deaths we have lost Chesty Brown and Roland Ahlswede. Our Memorial Books are steadily being added to Baker Library and, as Fletcher says, that is a much more appreciated remembrance than flowers which last but a day or two. Our losses will be severely felt. Swede Ekstrom was one of our stalwarts and no one can deny that Chesty Brown did not add much in his modest but decisive manner to our reunions.
Secretary, 15 Gloucester Lane West Hartford, Conn. 06107
Treasurer, 4 Bank Building, Middleboro, Mass. 20346
Bequest Chairman,
