1911

Trueworthy Dudley keeps busy attending meetings of the N.A.R.F.E. (Retired Federal Employees)—The American Association of Retired Persons—and does some witnessing for "The Full Gospel Business Man's Fellowship." He attended the northeast convention of the latter organization in New York in early October. He is really functioning.

Sam Pickering- writes that the birthday card, a colored picture of Dartmouth Hall, stirs pleasant memories and he hopes to see it again. He and Elsie are pretty well.

Thayer School's centennial story in the October Magazine had an especially strong nostalgic appeal to Wee Kimball. The top picture on page 27 showed Thayer School's first home on Park Street and during Thayer's last year there, he and Al Hormel lived in the room on the second-floor righhand corner. The middle picture showed Thayer's next home in old Bissell Hall and during Thayer's first year there, he and Al lived in the room on the top-floor righthand corner.

1911'ers will be interested to know that Mrs. Joan Hier with the Alumni Magazine—the gal who edits our Class Notes and weeds out all our mistakes—is able to claim our Jake Lovejoy as her great-uncle and she says "great" can be applied in both senses. Furthermore, her son Robert Love- joy Hier, is now a freshman at Dartmouth.

"Hopper" Allison on ferns: "Our house in New Hampshire was built in 1790. It had two wings: one a barn and 'woodworking' shop, and the other the first community store. The store was sledded to the village three miles away in 1854 and still stands. The cellar hole with its stone foundation was left, and in and around it trees have grown. For years it has served as a catchall for anything thrown from the back porch. About twenty years ago we cleaned it up and started planting ferns among the rocks. Stone paths were built at different levels and a St. Francis and bird baths installed. As the fern fever grew, I joined the American Fern Society and became a pteridologist. Among my friends was Harold Rugg of Dartmouth, who was a real expert and had a lovely garden in Hanover. The Fern Society staged several July field days combing an area from Dorset to Woodstock, then on to the Brattleboro area and Toby Mt. near Amherst. Some one knew where the green spleenwort grew near Plymouth, or the tiny cliff fern on an old railroad cut near Ludlow. Near Woodstock was the rare male fern and near Amherst the climbing ferns. (I could use their botanical names such as polystichumacrostichoides for the Christmas fern, or crystogramma stelleri for the cliff fern, but I won't do this.)

"As the years went on, my August vacations were spent ferning, until we had (or have had) 55 varieties of New England ferns. Nature takes care of them. They have no pests and the leaves protect them in winter.

"The joys of finding new 'stations', as the fern people call them, and the fellowship of fern friends reaches up with a very satisfactory hobby and should be recommended to your children and grandchil- dren. Incidentally, eleven months a year, I still practice a little medicine."

Ken Clark was disappointed not to get back to Africa last summer. He plans to spend the winter at, in and about Greenwich. He reports he and Elizabeth are reasonably well. John Scotford who suffered a slight shock on the way to the 60th Reunion and was treated at the Mary Hitchcock Hospital has made good progress, is preaching again and working as editor of 'LEVEN UP. Hartford Leonard, a classmate of the secretary at Thayer Academy, a successful rancher near Calgary, Alberta, since college days, and George "Ky" Byrnes, whose inimitable takeoffs of Honey Fitzgerald campaigning among the faithful in South Boston were priceless, although listed as living, never reply to requests for information.

Don Cheney who sang so lustily at our 60th Reunion, still continues his lifetime record of public service, as president of the newly chartered Orange County Historical Society in Florida. A clipping sent to BillGooding tells of the plans for a new Orange County Historical Museum and Don's plans for a fund-raising campaign. He, Ken Clark, Sam Aronowitz, WeeKimball and Hen Seaver look like our best bets to reach 90. Lin-Yi Ho was deeply touched by our birthday greeting on a colored postcard showing Dartmouth Hall which recalled his student days in happier times. His health is fairly good, but with impaired eyesight a problem.

Harold Burtt reports continued contrbutions to the literature on ornithology. A recent one is "Topophilia in Grackles." "In other words, grackles get attached to a place like Columbus. They get in my trap repeatedly and return the next year to do likewise. When they are found dead by somebody and the leg-band turned in, 80% of them are in Columbus as against about 30% for other species. In the anthology of bird song it must have been a grackle that wrote 'Home Sweet Home.' "

Secretary, Rochester St. Somersworth, N. H. 03878

Treasurer, Seaside Ave., Saco, Maine 04072