1945

First off, I have to get my news off my chest. Shirley and I became grandparents for the fourth time, as our eldest son, Earle (now 37), became a father for the first time. Sarah Frances Wason arrived January 28 at Memorial Hospital in North Conway, N.H. It is rumored that she was born with skis on her feet; but whether or not this is true, I'll have you know that she, her proud parents, and her doting grandparents are all doing very well, thank you.

Jack Burroughs sent along a copy of his and Alice's Christmas newsletter. It sounds as though 1982 will be a year which Jack will not soon forget it being the year in which he suffered an aneurysm of the aorta and ended up with three feet of dacron tubing inside and roughly 200 stitches outside. The Burroughses have sold their large, older home, have moved to the outskirts of Pittsburgh, and look forward to 1983 with optimism. By abstracting the letter, one learns that Jack and Alice have four grown daughters (he and I should have crosschecked our notes way back there somewhere) and, apparently, four grandchildren.

John Osborn sent along a copy of a note he received from one Robert D. Oldfield Jr. Now somewhere along the line Barney must have flunked Penmanship 101, but I did manage to decipher that son Robb is a trainee in the international department of a Columbus, Ohio, bank.

Briefly noted also is that Murray Smart was recently honored for 20 years of service as executive secretary of the Insurance Agents Association of Maine and that Fred Berthold is chairing the ad hoc committee considering the re-establishment of Naval R.O.T.C. at Dartmouth. Fred is interested in everyone's views on this matter. I vote "yes," Fred, and suspect that a large percentage of our classmates agree with me.

Warren Agry sent his deposit for our upcoming 20-20 reunion. As far as I know, that makes Jug, and Moose, and one A.B.W. who have coughed up so far. Come on, gentlemen, loosen those purse strings.

It doesn't seem possible that another year has rolled by, but Jack Reeves reports that another annual reunion of the "Leven Lebs" is now history. The Illinois contingent, including Jack and Ruth and Eleanor and Tom Armstrong, was hosted by Jocey and Craig Cain at their Evanston home. Joining them were Dottie and Jim Kehoe, who drove all the way up from Marietta, Ga. Next year's meeting will be at Kentucky Lakes, and it is hoped that the Cam Grays will make it from California.

From even further away John Halstead reports that he is back in Egypt at American University in Cairo, while Susan is teaching at Cairo American College. They have one daughter at A.U.C. and two sons finishing up college in the States, while their oldest son and his family are still in Germany with the Army Engineers. John says he is "seriously contemplating" joining the growing group of '45 early retirees.

One of these is Charles A. Rowan Jr. Now the Christmas card that I got depicted Moose and Joan posing before the Parthenon or some similar building of antiquity. If one looks carefully (as I always do), one observes staging on a couple of the pillars and a flurry of reconstruction activity. Moose, did you up and lean on that thing?

Methinks George Barr is becoming obsessed with the thought of retirement. His indepth treatise on social security which appeared in a recent " '45 Mail Call" deserves a prominent place in the file of every potential retiree. The other day I ran across my original S.S. card, issued to me back there in 1938. On the back of the card one reads: "When you reach the age of 65 OR DIE {caps mine} the nearest field office should be notified at once." If I should die, I for one am planning to stop in at the nearest field office and let them know.

It's the least I can do to contribute toward the solvency of the fund.

P.O. Box 39 Atkinson, N.H. 03811