1921

As we move on jubilantly to 1980 and to an unpolluted 2000 when we shall reach what the poet calls "a ripe old age," let us hear from a philosopher and scientist about aging. AllenBrailey, M.D., observes, "It is intensely interesting — and mysterious. Our muscles have served us well for many years, and we continue to nourish them, but they let us down sadly. Why? Well, they depend on hundreds of enzymes and hormones, some of which can no longer supply us adequately." Allen and Alice are adjusting nicely. "We are content to plod along at a gentle pace, and we are pleased to find it so pleasant not to be in a hurry."

And what of George and Madelaine Harris? Let Bob Burroughs tell the story. For their 50th wedding anniversary, he drove to Mountain Top Inn near Rutland, Vt., and joined Cory and Abbie Litchard. All arranged by Harris children with perhaps a dozen grandchildren present, "the occasion was one of the best I have ever experienced." And Bob makes a reasonable prophecy: "George and Madelaine are going to be well off for the next 50 years."

Let us speak of books because "a good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life." To honor the memory of Ellis,Lucy Briggs has presented to the Dartmouth College Library their copy of Complete Poemsof Robert Frost, which was inscribed to them by the poet while he was a guest at the Embassy back in 1961. In his Amazing But True Book,Doug Storer notes that the first medical X-ray in the United States was made at Dartmouth by Gilman DuBois Frost, father-in-law of JackHurd, and that the Dartmouth Museum is the oldest museum of natural history in America. Bill Fowler continues to work on his theory that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays commonly attributed to Shakespeare; Bill once called on Joe Folger about the spelling of a French word in an Oxford Letter. Joe recalls how Louis Paul Benet, Dartmouth professor of education, devoted many class hours to proving that Shakespeare was really Oxford, and how such elevated education infuriated professors Francis Lane Childs, Henry Dargan, and Walter Brooks Drayton Henderson.

The history of Sun Valley and what celebrities did to it and for it is the subject of a book by Dorice Taylor, Phez's wife. Carl McMackin failed to find a publisher for his book about Maine because, he says, it contained too few rapes, adulteries, and incestuous adventures; but he continues to write successfully for the Lapidary Journal about bog agate and jasper. Suzanne Bloch, the musician's daughter and wife of Paul Smith, has written a television documentary about her father financed by Exxon; and Paul has completed a "low-level" book about mathematics. Dover has been advertising a book entitled Classic Piano Rags: CompleteOriginal Music for 81 Rags to which Rudi Blesh has written an introduction. Are your feet silent when Rudi nostalically recalls The Peach, Queen of Love, Elite Syncopations, and the Saint Louis Rag? Do Scott Joplin, James Scott, and Joseph Francis Lamb mean nothing to you anymore?

If you have forgotten them, you surely remember our own James Parmelee Richardson, professor of political science, whom TomCleveland conjures up with more than medium skill. As 1921 class adviser, Jim led the unbeaten football team to a post-season game in Atlanta. Returning, they stopped off in Washington to meet President Harding. The players lined up, Jim at their head. "President Harding, I am James Parmelee Richardson, professor of political science at Dartmouth College." President Harding replied, "That so? Who's next?"

'21ers visiting in Hanover cheer up local classmates in more ways than one. At the Hanover Inn in August Warren and Martha Ege were hosts at a lavish cocktail party for Bill andTeeter Alley, Doris Braman, Orton and LoisHicks, Jack and Evelyn Hurd, Bob and RosamondLoeb, Bill and Edith Perry, and Nelsonand Terry Smith. Bob and Rosamond Loeb gave a luncheon party for Norm and Louise Carver and Jack and Evelyn Hurd when Norm was in town to donate to the college library a copy of his son's book as a memorial to his brother Frederick Eugene Carver Jr. '27, headmaster of Kimball Union Academy from 1952 to 1969. The magnificent volume, Silent Cities: Mexicoand the Maya, required more than four years of research in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.

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