1947

Dear Classmates:

Here I am, writing this column in March, for us to read in May. This may not seem like a great stretch of time. From where I view industry and business, we're always 60 to 90 days out front in our planning, and many months more in the back of our minds.

But this column is for consumption by classmates whose major tie is a four-year educational and social experience a long time ago, and I find the mind has to be in a certain frame. But being in this frame is enjoyable, I find. Think back, if you will, to what March conjured up for us 35 or so years ago: a break from the deep cold of winter, mud from thawing ground, duckboards between remote snow islands, a blue sky gleaming off white brick walls. Then jump to May, and what have we? New growth springing up among the brown blades of grass, buds all out, warmth, long evenings, birds and peepers.

But this year is easier than most. We had very little deep winter in New Hampshire, and March came in February, so that now we're into brown grass, the mud is about over, and days are warmer. Even the sugarin' season was changed. For the first time in over 25 years I stood on ground, not on snow, to tap the maples.

This year also we're planning to attend our 35th college reunion, and I'm allowing this whole process to transplant my mind back to those days many times. Anticipation is part of the fun. But a preview of reunion is also coming up for me. Just as the spring this year has come early, so is reunion, in mini form. My roommate Bill Buckingham is making a trip east, and he and Mo are planning about a week here with us before the gathering in Hanover. We're really looking forward to this. Buck and I roomed together four years in Crosby Hall, .a very fortunate location. We shared Crosby with classmates Cotton Johnson, Frank Weber, Gerry Franklin, Pete Townsend, Bob Motlong, John Slade, Norm Fink, Dee Mallory, Doc Curley, and many others.

Buck and I shared our room with Bill Hallager and Harley Timbers, as well as with members of younger classes of Dartmouth hockey immortality. I think Buck and I put Harley through the Tuck-Thayer program, with our friendly advice to "quit studying and party just a bit to relax you'll study better." We also made Tim look good to the lovely Elaine on her many visits just by being ourselves. Willie Hallager didn't need any such advice; he was the one who introduced us to "glue-vine," that vitamin-loaded drink of the ski team. Willie and I were a lot alike - our Carnival dates never went home on Sunday, they just hung around. (Jean and Dottie are still around.)

Buck and I worked five years for the same company making and testing aircraft engines. We began the same day; I left in five years, while Buck stayed 34 years and is retiring now, after about 20 years in Seattle.

There are a lot of questions for us to discuss, after a 20-year lapse. How about raising kids; what kinds of friends have we each found; are you still a farmer basically; have you traveled; what about politics and social issues; what shall we do in retirement?

The anticipation of this visit is a preview to our class reunion. I'd like the chance to discuss all these issues with every classmate. Our class is rich in a wealth of experience. We have world travelers, we have business people, we have educators. Just to name a few fields of interest to show the richness of our diversity (not to single out people):

Zeke Lanzillo is a swimming pool expert. Phil Booth is a poet in Maine. Joe Marsh is a college president. Chuck Barton is a representative in tools. Tom Harrington is a musician, teacher, and labor administrator. Jerry Franklin is in psychiatry in N.Y.C., as is GeorgeCohn in Connecticut. Jerry loves New York. Mike Pender engineers big construction projects, also in New York. John Tower is an M.D. in Alaska, as is Charlie Schofield in New Hampshire. Wallace Bradway is with the museum in Chicago. Bob Dodson has been an international traveler. JohnTrethaway operates a social meeting hall, otherwise known as a hardware store, in Manchester Center, Vt. Grant Tinker runs a broadcasting place. Gerry Kirchner does Vermont things in Stowe, Vt. (Is Vermont syrup nearly as good as New Hampshire syrup?)

What does a reunion mean to you? It can mean a chance to exchange ideas with the very spice of life interesting people. And don't overlook the fact that these great people have wives who have advanced likewise on the roller coaster of life. Indeed, the prospect is of a very stimulating few days in Hanover!

Hope to see many of you there.

1947's 35th JUNE 13-16, 1983

63 Maple Avenue Keene, N.H. 03431