1916

Let's start with a bracer or two from the North Country: The first comes from AlLawton of Essex Junction, Vt., near Burlington:

It was the worst snowstorm to hit northern Vermont, since the Weather Bureau began keeping records in the state. Christmas was a beautiful day, but that evening it began to snow and snow fell continuously for 43 hours, adding 34 inches to the ten inches of snow already on the ground. Street and highway crews labored day and night to keep traffic lanes open for emergency use. On the sides of streets snow was piled way above the tops of cars. Driveways and walks looked like tunnels. For three days we didn't try to get out into the street but on the fourth day, after high school boys had shoveled our driveway three times, Myrtle stood in the street and signaled to me when no car was approaching because from inside the car I could see nothing except what was straight ahead. Working as a team, we made it safely to the supermarket and to the library; thus, with food for our bodies and refreshment for our minds and spirits, we can have no real gripes.

Second, John Stearns' January Balmacaan Letter brought you his derogatory comment on the same beautiful snow. Perhaps the following from him may help place that comment in perspective: "Speaking of Christmas, my new snow-blower has a lever on it labeled 'Don't touch except in neutral.' So my grandson pushed it. Snow-blower snorted, jumped ten feet in the air - therl lay dead."

And Erwin Gilford adds: "We are having an old-fashioned winter that reminds me of my boyhood days in Glens Falls when, looking back now, the snowbanks seemed almost a mile high, as they almost are now." So much for snow.

Now from sunny California (19238 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu 90265):

I'm sure hopeful that you can use this note in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. I spent Christmas and New Year's in the Santa Monica Hospital, trying to mend some fractured bones I got from a bad fall.

Some fine cheer-up notes arrived at the hospital from some of my 1916 friends- among them Dan Dinsmoor, Dan Lindsley, Cliff Bean, Phil Nordell, Gran Fuller, Esky, Shorty, Kay English, John Stearns, Rog Evans. Also a personal call from Spence Sully - all of which swiftly lifted me into the VIP class with the nurses!! All of this also lessened the pain and made me proud.

Bless you all and here are my heartfelt thanks. Dan Coakley.

You're the man we're proud of, Dan, and we're all hanging in there with you.

Since learning of George Smith's death in France, an exceptional number of classmates have testified to their respect for him.

George's daughter Colette (Mrs. Paul W. Douglas) has graciously acknowledged our messages of sympathy sent to the family at Tinchebray and New York. George's Bonne Annee 1970 card, which she addressed and posted for him at Tinchebray on December 18, has come since, like a requiem. It pictures "After one of our rare snows: the path toward the orchard gate (and the Cathedral) at Les Sillons."

By kindness of Dick Ellis, we now have the sad news that Alice Shumway Walker, Ted's widow, formerly of Newton, Mass., passed away on January 19, presumably at the Newton-Wellesley Hospital. She so loyally carried on the interest that she and Ted always had in the Class, most recently driving up to our Hanover reunion in September, with Caroline Conley.

We are sorry that a month's effort had yielded for Art Barak only the limited notice that appears in the In Memoriam section. Except for one 1960 Detroit press release picked up by the Alumni Records Office, virtually all that we know was furnished by Bill McKenzie who both worked and roomed with Art at Akron immediately following graduation, and characteristically made such contacts as they and their wives thereafter had in Akron, Sun City and Detroit. Bill and Ruth have our gratitude.

In clarifying his recent change of address to 7970 Pine Road, South Glens Falls, N. Y. 12801 and in helpfully up-dating his card Erwin (Gift) Gifford says: "I am now living across the Hudson River from Glens Falls, my home town, and every day I ride over the bridge above the falls and Cooper's Cave in the rock below, made famous, I suppose, by James Fenimore Cooper's 'Last of the Mohicans.' I was in newspaper work since 1922, latterly as society editor of the New York Herald Tribune and World Herald Tribune until they went out of business." Erwin and Frances have two married sons, Robert E. who lives in Eden near Buffalo and David S. of Columbus, O. Of his own first initial "J," incidentally, Erwin says: "I have no name for the 'J,' although I got smart and assumed my father's name 'Jay' when I entered Dartmouth, and was graduated under that name. I'm like Harry Truman, who has no name for the middle initial 'S.'"

Appreciative of the many messages he himself got from classmates when he was hurt and hospitalized in the spring of 1968, Shorty Hitchcock said he talked by phone with Dan Coakley at home in mid-January "and it surely was pleasant to again hear his New England twang and learn of his cheerfulness."... A veteran of a month, George Dock has likewise been spreading encouragement among active flu victims.... In writing of George Smith, DeWitt Stillman admits to slowing up (who isn't?). But he adds that he and Dorothy are very happily set in their new home amid the flowers and sunshine of Santa Barbara, and thoughtfully enclosed a Kodachrome snap of it and themselves, as evidence. Irving Wolff, Parker Hayden and our other high-speed skiers may be interested to know that the new Hydron-coated and therefore fog-proof skiglasses manufactured by Chet Wool worth's Woodstream-Hy-Pa and distributed by Trappe of Aspen, Inc., have been patented. In New York, they are retailed by Abercrombie & Fitch and by Lord & Taylor. Felicitations to Dorothy and John Butler who quietly celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary.

Memories of Parkside in the snow: A recent Saturday during midyear exams, Edna and I had the pleasure of having two Swarthmore seniors over for dinner and the afternoon - the granddaughter of Dean and Mrs. Gordon Bill, Cindy Lewis, and her roommate from Cleveland. Personable, serious and talented, they respectively are headed for graduate work in economics and law, and are just delightful.

Secretary, Box E, Swarthmore, Pa. 19081

Treasurer, Singletary Ave., Sutton, Mass. 01527