1966

Life-styles. How different we seem to grow up! From a common experience of Big Green, Indians, Wah-Hoo-Wah, "Gear," the Big Wheel, the Fan Room, and Billings Lee, we have gone our individual not separate, but individual—ways. Do you remember one of the things Greg Eden said at our graduation? Something to the effect that the Dartmouth undergraduate experience did not afford the diverse exposure portrayed in the pamphlets. After all, the average family income for a Dartmouth undergraduate was $25,000 (oh, for the good old days!). In other words we came from suburban life-styles, which did not allow a socially diverse or enriching educational experience. I'm paraphrasing Greg of course, and I'm sure I'll get a letter setting the facts straight or maybe even a copy of his speech! But the news I get from time to time reminds me that even though our socio-economic backgrounds are relatively homogeneous, individualism is the stuff we're made of.

For example, take Jake Guest. He was written up in a Vermont state newspaper as "Norwich's 'Midnight Farmer.' " Having twice dropped out of Dartmouth, he turned to the radicalism of the sixties and seventies, living on a commune farm called the Wooden Shoe, near the College. The group disavowed the idea of making money simply for the sake of it, but with time, political rhetoric gave way to the tasks required for living communally. After the break-up of the farm, Jake stayed in the area, farming in Canaan before moving to Norwich three years ago. Now he plows his cabbage and carrot patches in the middle of the night because "at night there's no one to bother me." Unconventional but effective farming methods symbolize individualism even in the pastoral life of a Vermont vegetable farmer.

Joff Keane has had a very different career path, hopping from country to country with the U.S. State Department. He has lived in 40 countries in 15 years, but for the last three he has "settled" in Buenos Aires. Two years ago he was concerned for Americans losing a "willingness to sacrifice ... for being the product of too much wealth, too easy opportunities." More recently, he was busy during the Falklands War last year as political officer, working on Secretary Haig's fruitless effort to negotiate a peaceful solution between Britain and Argentina. Joff also mentioned that Jim Cason, who was also a political officer with the State Department in Uraguay, has been declared personnel non grata (how does one do that?) and is now serving in a similar capacity in Panama.

Exemplifying further our paths of diversity and individualism, George Detlefsen and Patricia Gruzinski were married last July along with 2,075 other couples in Madison Square Garden by the Reverend and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon. Patricia is a clinical psychologist from Tourquane, France. She is a graduate of the University of Lille and is currently attending the Unification Theological Seminary in Barrytown, N.Y. George is a systems engineer for Teknekron Controls of Berkeley, Calif. He designs and builds "wild and wooly" automation projects for robots, computerized image processing, and warehousing systems. George writes that his spare time is spent supervising maintenance and reconstruction of Church properties in the Bay area. Patricia will move to California in June when she graduates.

And what would our survey of life-styles be without an example of a "corporate ladder," legal, or medical career path? George Trumbull has been commuting between Philadelphia, New York, and Hartford for the past year and a half, helping put together the merger of Connecticut General and INA insurance companies, now known as CIGNA. If you need a free lunch when in New York, George is at 1185 Sixth Avenue.

And extending the '66 "success ladder" is Prudence Beatty Abram, Sam Abram's wife, who was recently appointed a federal bankruptcy judge for the southern district of Manhattan. She was one of four women nationally to receive such a distinction.

Bob Baird called the other week trying to entice us to do a little skiing, and to say that he's "just rocking along" at Vinson, Elkins in Houston where he's been a partner for the last six years. He has had his own legal battles, though, with a local utility which wants to put a high voltage transmission line through his weekend retreat, known as "Old Brown's Camp" in memory of a family member who recently left for the great boneyard in the sky. Bob also revealed that he and Ann are really trying (which was news to Ann) . . . hard.

But what you get may be more than you bargained for. Bill and Susan Ramos (both doctors in Reno) checked in with twins last November 10-Peter Gordon and Tova Michelle. All our wives extend their sympathy to Susan for carrying around 11 pounds of babies! Alas, Bill writes they have discovered that two are more work than one! Congratulations to you both.

And finally, I received a note from Bill Dowling, who is at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland. Bill, who was editor of the Jacko, wrote a special note concerning the passing of Kirk Ditzler, an individual in his own right. "Kirk was one of the two or three best college cartoonists of his generation. There was a simple way of measuring. ... {it being} the custom to grant automatic reprint rights to 'bona fide humor magazines.' . . . Kirk's was always among the most frequently reprinted in the nation. . . . Kirk was always at the top. . . . Kirk, like the rest of us, went on to other lives, but that's the way I'll remember him. He made people laugh."

And, so, too, have we all gone on to "other lives," our individual, but not really separate, ways.

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