1928

Our 30th annual mini-reunion was held October 11-12 at the Norwich Inn. The weather was beautiful and the foliage was at its peak. We enjoyed being together at the football game, but Colgate won by a lopsided score. More than 60 classmates, wives, and widows gathered for a wonderful weekend. President Rick Rickenbaugh conducted the class meeting in Norwich on Friday; we heard reports from all 10 officers and the seven members of the executive committee. (Rick also presided at the Saturday night dinner.) It was voted to have the next minireunion October 10-11 (Holy Cross game) and the following year on September 2526 (UNH game). For 30 years Herb Sensenig has made all the arrangements at the Norwich Inn and with his usual thoroughness has now booked, two years in advance, enough rooms and the exclusive use of the Ranger Room for our Friday and Saturday night dinners.

Saturday morning many classmates took the opportunity to visit the new Hood Museum which had just opened. At the banquet Saturday night, our guest speaker was John C. Heston Jr. '54, director of Dartmouth's Communications and Public Programs Office, who brought us up to date on Dartmouth matters and long-range planning. Five undergraduates were our guests, including Jack Heston's grandson, Bill '87, Craig Haines's granddaughter, Carolyn Salsgiver '88, RickRickenbaugh's grandson, Bart '88, Karen Dietz '88, and Anita Hamilton '89, a Class of 1928 Scholar.

Creighton Hart has figured out that the number of grandchildren seems to peak 60 years after graduation. His granddaughter, Debbie, graduated in 1980, so he told her that the grandchildren of her class will peak in 2040 doesn't that seem like an eternity away!

Creighton has five grandchildren in college this year (Mark Hart '85 is one of them) and says, "Thank goodness the number will drop to one next year."

Hammie Hammesfahr wrote: "I sure did appreciate your card which incidentally arrived exactly on my 80th birthday! Gratia and I had a great trip to Portugal and Spain where I finally got my fill of one of my favorite painters, El Greco 44 of them wow!"

Betty Dietz, Bill's widow, moved November 1 to Meadow Lakes in Hightstown, N.J., a retirement community. Incidentally she read about it in the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine early this year. Betty adds: "It is seven miles from Princeton, but I shall remain an avid Dartmouth gal." Her granddaughter, Karen '88, was a guest of our class at the Norwich Inn dinner after the Colgate game. Betty could not come to our mini-reunion because she was busy selling her co-op in Beacon, N.Y., and packing. Karen's father is Peter Dietz '57 of Tacoma, Wash.

While our classmates are happy to still play golf, Bob Reid astounds us every year with rigorous wilderness trips. I'm indebted to Louise Felts, Bob's neighbor in Palm Springs, Calif., for an account of three trips. Bob took a 10-day horseback ride in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in

Montana, reaching altitudes of 9,000 feet. Five days later he was in Idaho on a floating trip down the Salmon River. When that was complete, after a few days he joined a group on a five-day horseback ride. On the second day out he and his friend, Bob Patterson, a 67-year-old doctor from Loveland, Colo., decided to hike to a lake just over the ridge. They came upon another lake and then lost their way back to camp, with nothing in their light clothing but a package of aspirin. At ten o'clock they slept under a tree. They started very early the next morning to find their way down the mountain to the Salmon River. After 36 hours of hiking they reached the river, but they were on the wrong side, opposite the road. They yelled a to man who had stopped to repair a flat tire, and he obtained help, but they still had more climbing to reach the road. As Louise summed it up: "All turned out well for one so young at heart and limb."

Speaking of hikers and climbers, the only '28 I know of who can backpack for several days in the Arizona or California mountains are Jim McConnon of Tucson and Charley Proctor of Santa Cruz, Calif. Our best known mountain climber is

Hank Buchtel, formerly of Denver, now living in Green Valley, Ariz., who has climbed many of the highest peaks in the Swiss Alps and in this country.

Van Dyne Oil Company Troy, PA 16947