1921

Just before returing to Florida, while sitting in our daughter's backyard in New Jersey and enjoying the magnificent trees of 70 to 100 years of age (or more), my thoughts drifted back to the days of my youth. A short poem by Samuel Woodworth (1785-1842) came to mind in which he expressed so beautifully what I was now dreaming:

How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood, When fond recollections present them to view, The old oaken bucket, the ironbound bucket The moss-covered bucket, which hung in the well.

Yes, classmates, in Botsford, Conn., and the one-room schoolhouse I attended, we obtained our water from the backet which hung in the well.

The evening was now closing fast. Robert Southey expressed it well: "How beautiful is night: A dewy freshness fills the .silent air."

I am not alone in memories of our youth. From Emory Corbin's widow, who has always been a loyal supporter of 1921, comes a bit of news reminiscing of the days when she was a student at Connecticut College. Both Emory and Olive were born on the same day in 1899, and both graduated from college in 1921.

For graduation, Olive's Connecticut College held a contest for a song to honor the event, since they were the first class to graduate when it was newly named Connecticut College. Olive won the prize, and Connecticut's Alma Mater was written by Olive Littlehales (Corbin).

Olive never missed a Winter Carnival. The trip up was via Central Vermont Railway from New London with dozens of other girls - all.having fun on the ride up to Norwich. Those were the free and happy days.

Listening to our politicians in Washington wrangling and wrestling about the budget, (all of them thinking about how to get reelected), I feel this little bit of prophecy by our friend Charles Dickens ought to be pasted on cardboard and hung up all over the halls of Congress:

"Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 19 pounds and six - result happiness! Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 20 pounds ought six - result misery!"

"The minds of some of our statesmen, like the pupil of the human eye, contract themselves the more, the stronger the light is shone upon them." (Thomas Moore, 1779-1852) Your secretary is all in favor of television in the United States Senate.

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