1936

I just came from a perfectly delightful concert given at my church in Wellesley by the Dartmouth Chamber Singers on tour. Of course it is readily understandable that I would be prejudiced favorably towards any Dartmouth tinged activity, graduate or undergraduate, but this little group of sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses put on a quality production of excellence and precision that would challenge the best that Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center could ever offer.

If the group schedules a concert anywhere in your territory, cancel all other appointments, hitch up the old grey mare or hope into the Z. and go right over for an afternoon or evening of truly superb music.

The sound and effect of music is not confined to undergraduate efforts, however. Milt and Marj Johnston are parlaying their local church singing group activities into a two-week visit and tour to Scotland and England this spring. They then hope to go on to Switzerland on their own to perfect their yodeling.

A clipping from a Greenwich, Conn., weekly tells about Bob Button, a founding partner and consultant to Cablevision of Connecticut. According to Bob, the potential of cable and satellite interaction has become one of the most challenging business opportunities of this era. Bob has been in and out of retirement more than Punxsutawney Pete and is currently active as president of American Transcommunications of Greenwich. He is also well known around the area for the music he writes, as well as for the big band sound of the "Retreads," which he directs. At Christmastime he put on a musical production for the Old Greenwich Lions Club Christmas party. Four of his compositions are scheduled for early publication. Who in our class can ever forget the gala he and his wife Decima assembled for our 40th reunion class banquet?

Incidentally, the Old Greenwich Lions Club is amply represented by D' 36. In addition to Bob Button, members include Jackson Smith, slated to be the next president, and Paul Lynch, charged with helping to furnish speakers for the weekly luncheons. By the time this makes the MAGAZINE, Paul and his wife should have completed their trip to Acapulco, Mexico, which was interrupted last year when Cathie became ill.

The old gang of '36 faithfuls from area code 203 is soon to be reduced by one couple, as Ray Builter retires from being business manager of the U. of Bridgeport, his wife Jerri takes down her real estate shingle, and the two of them return to the Hanover scene. Ray has always said he wanted to retire to the outskirts of a pleasant community where he could get up in the morning, walk into town for the newspaper. and say hello to the neighbors. Good luck and best wishes to you, Ray and Jerri, in your new home in the College Hill project. And may you, Ray, find plenty of time to pursue your interest in ephemera.

For 47 years Bob Warren busied himself in the dungeons of New York City as a music composer and arranger. Now under the Rodney label (a 45 r.p.m. priced at $1.29) he has brought out, at age 67, his first recording. He writes: "Actually I gave up trying to write songs when rock took over. I had developed bad habits, like rhyming, that precluded my participation in the destruction of popular music. . The only music I've done (recently) is a bunch of ditties commenting on the insanity that's all around us. In 1973 I had a successful recording of'Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean,' which I actually wrote as a joke but which suddenly mushroomed.

"So when enough people told me that I sing well —as I've sung the stuff I've been knocking off mostly to keep my sanity -I decided that it's only because the kids today sing (?) so badly that I sound passable. A sad commentary, indeed, on what's happened to the music biz."

Bob's recordings, "Hail, All Hail the U.S. Mail and "Back to the Drawing Board Blues," will never make the Dartmouth Chamber Singers (either on or off tour), I feel certain, but keep tuned to your local morning radio stations and you may hear this bit of Dartmouth (whimsy) Undying.

Following the beat of a different drummer, as more and more of us are doing today, Dick Treadway announces a new address on Johns Island off the coast of Florida at Vero Beach. When the soft winds off the Gulf Stream become too hot and dry, he will retreat to the lyrical summer climate of Andover, Vt. Sure beats knocking yourself out on the cobblestone streets of Boston.

32 Lehigh Road Wellesley, Mass. 02181