1921
In Honolulu Ted Merriam may surprise New England rosegrowers. In winter his roses flourish, but they die in summer heat Japanese beetles, which led Bob Loeb to quit as rose connoisseur, used to plague Ted, but now a special fertilizer spells death.
Sam Plumb of Streater, Ill., who boasts about retirement loafing, runs true to form, not'in lolling but in listening. If he no longer plays he enjoys orchestral and chamber music. He seeks out the company of Doriot Anthony, first flutist of the Boston Symphony, either in Streater where she grew up with Sam's daughter, or on TV. And he is pepped up by four persons living only a block away: his daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren. It would be a mixed metaphor to say that Sam with his family plumbs the heights.
Other grandpas rival him in heightplumbing. Chick Stiles, that soured male chauvinist violently opposed to the admission of women to Dartmouth, is now grinning sheepishly Grand daughter Julie (father Bob is '53) is to sweeten the Dartmouth freshman class this autumn Ingham Baker's granddaughter Wendy, Dartmouth '76, whose brother is Timothy '74, son of Walton '48, married last November' Grant Healy '75, son of Grant Healy Sr. '34.
Unlike Van Cieve, not much piscatorically inclined, Tom Griffith with Olga has returned 24 times to Mt. Dora, Fla., even though the fishing gets worse each year. Dave and Mary Plurae cheerful in Ocean Ridge, Fla., found the winter so chilly that they had to bundle up for golf. Result: their championship golf melted.
Melted? If Nelson Smith looks a bit skinny to you, here's why. On an exercycle indoors he rides miles daily, very, good exercise for heart and legs. And, depending on your point of view, he diets madly or sanely. Good-bye, Bulge.
Exercise? Also indoors. Ken Sater follows with keen interest Golden Bear Jack (Nicklaus to you), the Ohio State University basketball team, John Havlicek and the Boston Celtics, and the Cleveland Browns. With equal intensity he plays bridge with nine or ten ardent couples. Prizes: no money, no booze, no cigars, but only tea or coffee.
Exercise? Outdoors, Ralph Baker continues to extol Arizona because of 18 holes of golf every day in weather 70° to 79° and Mexican explorations. His daughter Barbara has finished courses leading to administration in a nursing home just in case her husband Dick Ide should die before her.
You won't believe that Martha Burroughs and Burd Helmer look old enough to attend their Vassar 50th, and indeed they are young in spirit, and energetic. As chairman of the program committee, Martha has lined up speakers and musical talent for two dinners, and Burd is one of a small leadership group raising (hold your breath!) $500,000 from the Class of 1927.'
Caroline Steiner has completed her filming of Florence and other Italian hill towns and is now involved overseas in Freiburg and Normandy. With American orientation, Ralph heads elsewhere: Houston and Pittsburg to lecture at art museums on how to develop visual acuity with maximum pleasure and profit.
When Dr. Nelson Barker was alive, Florence flew with him four times to Alaska. Now a great-grandmother, always mobile, she continues to be occupied over large areas: a day-nursery board, a community correction committee, a semi-research job on adolescents at her state hospital, volunteer work with alcoholics, bird watching, gardening, and cross-country skiing. In such fashion she fills the immense void caused by Nels's untimely death.
Facing a similar problem, Pearl Newcomb has returned to the practice of law in Bay City. Mich., and devotes most of her spare time to doing research on Newc and his family background and planning for appropriate memorials to keep his memory Dartmouth green.
Rudi Blesh has been so marvellously active in writing, teaching, research, lecturing, African folk law and music, and recordings that it is difficult to accept at face value what he says. He is too "lazy" to write another book, and so he "just fusses around with record album notes."
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