1931

Late last August, in the wee hours of the morning, Peanut Winslow was awakened by a phone call. The call was from the Coast Guard. It was a plea for help, quick help. Pean"ut roused his crew, and they rushed to their tug and headed for Pleasant Point Gut, 25 miles distant. A million-dollar, 80-ton yacht was in distress, stuck on a ledge, listing almost 55 degrees, and taking water in through an open hatch in the bow. The plush craft had anchored the night before. Owner, owner's wife, yacht captain, and mate all four were taking their ease below decks when the wind came up. The yacht dragged her anchor in the 30-m.p.h. breeze and soon was hard aground with the tide running out fast. As the tide ran out, her stern was pushed higher by the ledge upon which she had been blown. The Coast Guard responded with a 41-foot rescue vessel, but they were powerless to move the boat off the ledge.

Peanut and his tug arrived and found that a big crane was needed. He took off for Wiscasset, where there was such a crane, but first he had to stop at Bath to get a tug big enough to tow the heavy crane and its barge. The whole trip took over 16 hours, and they arrived back at the site by 7:00 p.m. By midnight on the second night he had the yacht upright and had it afloat on the high tide the following morning. With an emergency pump shooting a six-inch stream of water out of the hull, he finally got the yacht to a marine railway in Boothbay Harbor. All in a day's work for Peanut, it seems. Wouldn't you think he'd lie down and take his Social Security peacefully?

Ori and June Hobbs made a three-day visit with Trudy and me, and they had the foresight to bring a three-day rainstorm with them. We played bridge morning, afternoon, and night, and had a great time. Ori told us about their visit with Line Page in Tuftonboro, where they were joined by Dave and Alice Loveland and John and Arlene McDonough. They had a great time insepcting Line's sheep, chickens, and woodlots. Ori thought the sheep were goats until somebody straightened him out. The Hobbses also brought a downpour with them when they attended the Princeton game,. I hope they take the rain with them when they go to Sarasota. We've had enough rain in these parts.

Bill and Patsy Walsh are going to Costa Rica in January, about one month before Trudy and I make it there. Maybe they'll leave a few notes for us. Bill and Patsy had Rex and Jessie Fall and Ned and Delia Pitkin over for a gettogether in September.

In case you missed it in the September ALUMNI MAGAZINE, Charlie Marx .presented to Dartmouth a collection of rare United States coins that is expected to be the centerpiece of the College's coin collection.

John Chamberlin wrote and suggested that when I get all the reunion slides sorted out, he would like to have his slides forwarded to the library's special collections department. This is a great idea, John, and now all I have to do is find the time to sort out all those slides. There must be over 200 of them, and they're all jumbled together.

Please get up out of that easy chair, wherever you are, and drop me a line. If you don't, I'll have to invent some fairy tales for the next column.

R.F.D. Box 33 Chebeague Island, Me. 04017