1916

First, we send our thanks to the many of you who sent us cards or personal messages at Christmas - especially to those who added encouragement and to those who made our Hall of Fame by including grist for these notes.

Let's start south from Seattle with the Burnhams: "For a change we didn't have snow for our departure, but we did have a flat tire just north of the Oregon line. We flew the AAA distress flag but it evoked no pity from anybody. Perc unloaded the trunk to get the spare tire and the hi-way looked as tho' Camille had blown through. A patrolman appeared of course just as Perc completed the change. ... After we got out of the Pacific Northwest we had sunshine and smooth sailing. It is delightful here at Guadalajara, warm and sunny and friendly. Feliz Navidad, Aline and Perc."

In order that you may have it a month earlier by BALMACAAN letter, we have furnished John Stearns with a current list of our Floridians, temporary or permanent, so far as the truth has been revealed unto us. There are doubtless others, who don't go for revelation.

Paul and Gay Goward from Winter Park have kindly helped with this list; also hope to look up Lawrence Mitchell. Jake andAnita Mensel again have rented a "pleasant house with its own private beach on the Gulf opposite Mexico (Sarasota)," hint that the shrimp fishing is good, and that they will quietly be taking the sun there into May. We've asked Jake to look up GuyKeddie. Hiram and Laura McLellan "have that peripatetic urge again and sailed from Los Angeles, Jan. 12 on a 53-day cruise around South America." Eskie "had a good year." Ralph Mendall's card pictured an attractive new two-story apartment house, colonial brick with white columns and rounded bay windows in a woodsy section of Middleboro, "as it looked when we moved in last February. My son Trafton, the bachelor and attorney of the family, and I live in the lower apartment on the right. My eldest daughter and her engineer son Kenney have the apartment above us. We all are very happily set." Always thoughtful of others, John Butler spent ten days in early December visiting their son Danny and family near Chicago and his own two sisters in Fort Dodge, while Dorothy visited with her brother and two sisters in Buffalo. Similarly, Parker Hayden had a good Thanksgiving week visit with his widowed sister in Pasadena and her young people; on the way out visited with a Santa Fe colleague of their Grenfell-Labrador days and on the way back with a cousin in Chicago. Good news from Fort Worth: Louise Behnke is recovering from her long and serious illness. May Tucker, recovering from a fall, thoughtfully sent memorabilia for the Archives. Relatives and friends brightened Polly Shedd's year variously by standing by at Athens and Staunton through Karl's passing, then by completely re-settling her in a sunny, second-floor apartment among "lovely new neighbors," by hosting her to the induction of a new president at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, and also by plane to a three weeks' stay with old friends at Boston. Capping a gallant note, MargaretFishback wrote from Brookings: "I wish that Horace and I had had more opportunities to renew his college ties and that I might have become a more closely united member of the wives' group. Strange how I can enjoy browsing through the letters that keep coming - Balmacaan, etc. - even though I have never met most of those mentioned. It is probably because Horace enjoyed them that they mean more to me now." But the scores of us who got to Lyme and Hanover for our 40th and 50th reunions will never forget you, Margaret.

Christmas week, alas, brought sad news, too. The Times on Christmas morning briefly announced the passing of our beloved George Harding Smith from emphysema, at Tinchebray on the 23rd. Indirectly, stark cards reported the deaths at Warren, Mich., of Arthur Barak on November 29 and of his wife Ethel on September 3. On behalf of Charlie, a phone call from New York Sunday said that Ruth Jones had passed away the day before from emphysema, and that Frank Pettengill and BurtLowe would represent 1916 at the services. Our deepest sympathy has been extended to the families so far as we know of them, and as soon as the needed information can be assembled, In Memoriam notices for George and Art will appear in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE.

Additionally, as the speedier BALMACAAN has told you, our reliable Dan Dinsmoor reports Dan Coakley in the Santa Monica Hospital, felled with a broken hip and pelvis. Do keep writing him.

When sending his regrets that the Frederiksens' holiday visit to Charlottesville would afford him no chance to attend the New York class dinner we had hoped could be built around him and George Smith, Ollie Frederiksen recently wrote something worth our pondering:

Your idea is most tempting and I can feel myself rejuvenated at the thought of an evening with men I haven't seen for more than half a century. Indeed, on my last trip to my boyhood home town of Little Falls, N.Y., I just happened to be there at the time of the high school reunion covering graduates from a span of ten years which included my class of 1911. I hadn't expected to meet more than half a dozen of those I had been in school with, since classes of that period each graduated only about fifteen members. But a good share of those graduates stayed on there or near there, and others came in from all directions. Out of 150 names, 120 showed up and, although I probably had not been back there for thirty years and had seen practically none of the people for fifty, I found that I knew every damn one, and had known most of them well. I envy those of you who have been able to keep up your college friendships. Remember, our next chance - our 55th—comes at Hanover in June, 1971 - barely a year from now.

Finally, to the test run in our December column of reader response to these Notes, of fifteen men named not more than three, if that many, responded as a result of the test, with even a card. Though it did not apply to him, Gran Fuller still saw the point and to some kind words added: "But get tough on support. Lots of classmates can supply news. I promise to send you some four or five times per year." Thanks a million, Gran. May your spirit be contagious.

Secretary, Box E, Swarthmore, Pa. 19081

Treasurer, Singletary Ave., Sutton, Mass. 01527