1921

Remember the snowless Winter Carnival of 1980? They managed it, with man-made and imported snow. Can you imagine such a situation in our time in college?

Anyway, let's get on with our few bits and pieces of news of some of the members of THE class.

We have a photograph of a grocery store window from Ralph Steiner, which he used as a Christmas card. Inside the window, in addition to a "Merry Christmas" placard, were three prices: "hams 300 per pound; corn beef 100 a pound; pork 250 per pound." On the card, Ralph had written, "Note prices in 1922." Those sure were the good old days. We wonder if we appreciated them 60 years ago.

In our file we find five or six notes from various of the class widows. In addition to the losses they have suffered, they have lost contact with, and, for various reasons, have lost interest in, if not respect for, the class of 1921 and the College. Maybe some of us can think of some way to help them out. We quote from a couple of them, without identification. "The Dartmouth of today is not for me"; she added, though, "Best wishes to the class of 1921." Four others, each in their own rather abrupt wording, wrote: "No more"; "Please cancel"; "Am thoroughly disenchanted"; etc. They need help and understanding of the circumstances surrounding any problems Dartmouth College has to contend with these days. There were such concerns way back in the early, post-war twenties. "Nuff said" for right now.

From the other, opposite, point of view came a great letter from Ralph Pendleton of Rutland, Mass. We hope Bob Burroughs will go further on this when he issues his next edition of "The Smoker." We quote a bit from Ralph's letter: "Please don't get the idea I have gone bananas, in fact I haven't felt any better since my second hip replacement over two years ago. The aging process affects Homo sapiens in so many different ways. I have trouble trying to remember what motivated me to participate in the Olympic semi-finals (eight shell rowing) in 1920. For a guy who left home at the tender age of 16, and who has been 100 per cent selfsupporting ever since, I honestly feel that life has been pretty good to me. Sure, there have been a few minuses, but the balance sheet is more than adequate. Frankly I am a bit proud of the considerable part of my career allocated to time spent as a volunteer for those agencies established to alleviate the problems of the community." Ralph, it is people such as you, with your spirit, who have made our class and our college and our country what they are, and inspire the rest of us to say, "It is mine, and I thank God for the part I have been privileged to share." We are reminded of a phrase from a recently-expressed thought: "As we grow in age may we grow in grace, and in the knowledge of all that we have been able to know, and see, and do."

Word has just come in that one of the outstanding members of Dartmouth's class of 1980, Reed M. Travis, has been named the recipient of the Millard Warner Newcomb Scholarship in French Language and Literature. Newc, as you may remember, died in 1975 in Bay City, Mich., where he, with his wife, practiced law in the firm of Newcomb and Newcomb.

One last bit of news came from one of our most faithful and energetically enthusiastic class widows, Doris Campbell. As you will remember, Jack died last November. Doris reported, quite casually, almost, "I have had Christmas, two cataract operations, and a birthday!" In spite of all that, Doris is among the many class widows who carry on in total loyalty to the class and the College, with their heads high and their spirits an example to all the rest of us.

That's the best we can produce for this month. The file is empty. What will happen if next month the file of news bits is still empty?

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