1921
In Army pilot training 50 years ago, AddWarner in Texas was flying a JN-54, a "Jenny," under difficult conditions. Only 5 feet 2¾ inches tall, he had to rely on a cushion back of him to reach the rudder pedals. From the open cockpit the pillow could blow out. Navigation principle: follow roads and hope they are the right ones (Some lead nowhere; others, dead ends.) The jenny had no brakes or flaps, only elevators and rudders. Landing, Add could turn, as if on skis, but lots of landing room for the plane simply to stop was a prime necessity. The toughest problem was that in his two-hour training flight he ran out of gas. Somehow he managed to manoeuvre to a landing strip where U. S. Army Personnel were prepared to give him a piece of their mind if he were still alive. For fun in 1968 Add flew the same course with his modern Beech, crammed full of maps, dials, gauges, compasses, and radios. No worry about a cushion in an open cockpit. Let the plane take over. In 1918 he needed two hours for the flight; in 1968, 30 minutes. This time he was transporting two German pointers and 100 pounds of dog food made by Imco, a company he recently purchased because he wants them to thrive with proper vitamins. Such locomotion and victualing would have interested Eleazar Wheelock from whom Add is directly descended. The first president of Dartmouth moved into New Hampshire even more slowly than a jenny in Texas. A Jenny could outstrip even highly motivated oxen, hardly the humming birds of the animal world.
Tom Staley to honor Seth Densmore has presented the Dartmouth College Library with "Galapagos, the Flow of Wildness" by Porter Eliot published by the Sierra Club in San Francisco. As Kenneth Brower, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, writes in his introduction, the two sumptuous volumes, lavishly illustrated in color, arose from "concerns for islands and the fragile life forms they have involved, the gentle insular wildness that is vanishing so rapidly around the world." Indeed they are remarkable volumes, written "by Spanish sailors, English pirates, Yankee whalers, and scientists from all over; a book published with the help of the Ecuadorean government by a North American Club founded by a Scotsman and printed in England from color separations made in Belgium, all of it to affect whoever now cares, or should, that wildness not cease flowing on the planet we can remain aboard only as long as the flow goes on."
At Fairhaven High School that Spanish and French specialist, Phil Noyes, can teach anything, English, math, and even biology. He knows no biology and before his pupils he does not pretend that he does. A delicate situation. If they know that he does not know, they know also that if they whisper too much or horse around, they will be sent to the Vice Principal. The miracle happens. Teacher and pupils are mutually tolerant, and he cajoles them into working usefully for themselves. Phil kicked out two boys from two different English classes devoted to Beowulf and Dostoevsky, and word circulated that the two culprits admitted that they deserved being booted. Almost equally incredible are the numbers of hours Phil puts in teaching, supervising study hall, and correcting papers.
Daytime interruptions sometimes force Walt Prince into his office at midnight to get caught up. Recently International Harvester, pleased with his sales record, awarded him and Joyce a vacation in Las Vegas, and they jetted on to Honolulu and Ohahu where Joyce has a son recently married. Earlier Harvester flew them on to Nassau. In Duxbury Walt holds no political office except membership on the Republic Town Committee because contract work and garage deals might result in a conflict of interest.
Wisely avoiding the rigors of New England winter weather, Leighton and LeighTracy are basking until spring in Kuwait, Arabian Gulf. After further explorations of the Near East they may fly to England, "a perfectly fascinating country," as a rewarding fulfilment after the historical novels of Evelyn Anthony.
Much improved, Jim Smead, now able to walk with only one cane, and Dot are planning on Florida to visit Dot's sister and Puerto Rico with concentration on Mayaguez and Humacao where is located Ryder Hospital of which Jim is a former trustee.
Loyal to skiing Vermont, Dan Ryder andFran are glad of "all that snow" and even gladder to head for Arizona and Florida to spend the money Dan earns, about 50 cents an hour as Town Lister.
A member of the School Board, TracyHiggins continues to find challenging the problems of construction and finance. At the recent Architectural and Community Awards Luncheon at Stony Brook Holiday Inn he was given a citation by Perkins & Will, architects. Tracy's Smithtown Central High School addition won the second highest award for excellence in architectural design, one of twelve given by the Long Island Association of Commerce and Industry in its 1968 competition.
When Hugh Penney as Congregational pastor was serving the Ayer Federated Church, Chuck Allen was the Methodist District Superintendent. At first they did not know that they were 1921 classmates because Hugh enrolled after Chuck had transferred. "He was a very effective minister and good friend," remarks Chuck. "I enjoyed working with him."
After viewing in West Hartford some 400 slides taken in Japan and listening to adulatory comments about the neatly dressed and soft-spoken Japanese and their universal courtesy, hotels five years old or less, and polite service without hands outstretched for tips, Ralph Baker and Sally, retiring soon, are thinking seriously of giving up winter bridge and summer golf for a flight to Tokyo.
Admitting that once in a dog's age Maitland and all Florida are cold in winter, Alex Wesley voices a nostalgic wish for New England and a house with two fireplaces and a cellar full of Vermont beech and New Hampshire maple.
John Sullivan has pointed out that the name of Dan Ruggles did not appear in the Smoker's list of eleven 1921 men receiving the Alumni Council Award. For this inadvertent omission Jack Hurd offers private and public apologies to Dan.
Kent McKinley will join his brother in Hawaii if the plane does not undergo Havana hi-jacking. Castro would enjoying welcoming him, for, even before Walter Winchell, Kent was the first American newspaperman to alert the public about Castro's future role as communist genius. During "the week of the vacuum" when Castro was in the hills with left-of-center-newsmen and Batista about to fly to Spain, Kent in Havana interviewed about 20 persons from all walks of life. Depressed, he was glad to check out of the deserted Hilton and fly back to the United States.
Pretty English, Irish, Scotch, and Welch nurses with delightful senses of humor may have speeded the hospital recovery of RalphPendleton. One of them kept calling him Mr. Picard. Why? She told him about THE Mr. Picard, elderly and subdued, who, returning from Paris, was asked how. he liked it. "Ah, mon Dieu," he said with a sigh. "If only I could have vacationed in Paris 30 years ago." The questioner: "You mean, when Paris WAS Paris." "No," replied the vacationer, "I mean when Picard WAS Picard."
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