1945

Would you believe? I found them! You know, the missing green cards. And I found them in the usual manner. There was one place where I was sure I had put them; and there was a second place where I might possibly have put them. Then there were lots of places suggested by helpful folks . . . you know, like wives and secretaries who, along with bits of wisdom like "you never know where anything is" and "you'd lose your head if it weren't attached to your neck," list places where you're absolutely positive you did not leave the missing article. Well, that's where they were . . . right in the number one place where I was absolutely positive they weren't. Anyway, I'm exonerated and can face right up to George Barr.

The first card was from Paul Roedel, who has retired but has not retired, as he is now running his own sales and marketing operation in Connecticut. The second was from Henry Dutcher, who is hoping to make the reunion and who was leaving for two weeks in Barbados on February 15 (the exact day of the deadline for this column). The third card was from Bob Ross down in Tallahassee. Bob and Fleurette are in regular touch with Kay and Jack Holmes. The latter couple recently visited with Cindy and Rod Walser, who, I'm told, are members in good standing of our '45 World Travelers Society. The fourth card I weaseled out of George was not a green card at all, but a white notation "from the desk of" Robert W. Tirrell Jr., D.D.S. I really do believe that Bob and Peg regularly summon up more energy than the entire class of 1988. Bob is practicing dentistry actively, is treasurer of his county dental society, a delegatto the New Jersey association, and on the staff of the Englewood Hospital. Both he and Peg are so involved in square and round dancing that it would take a separate column to list their accomplishments in this field. Suffice it to say that between them they teach, they choreograph, they edit and publish magazines, they hold positions of responsib ility in local and international associations. And would you possibly believe they both teach Sunday School!

From class treasurer John Osborn comes news of four new, active members: RobertR. Pena Jr., Robert H. Dyer, and Paul F. Cover, and from way out there in Moraga, Calif., William B. Adam. Hopefully, fellows, we'll be seeing you in Hanover in June.

Regular readers of this column (of whom there are 13.3, according to a recent survey) will recall my reporting on the literary accomplishments of Evan S. Connell. At that time Evan was immersed in a labor-of-love project, an in-depth biography of George Armstrong Custer. As 1984 came to an end, that project, entitled Son of the Morning Star, was enjoying its second consecutive week on The New YorkTimes nonfiction best seller list. There are now about 100,000 copies in print, and it has been nominated as one of the five best works of nonfiction in 1984 by the National Book Critics Circle.

Oh yes, about those regular readers of this column ... It seems that four are recent retirees who are waiting to see their names in print; one is a '54, afflicted with dyslexia; and two are '44s who are speed readers and can't stop at the end of their own notes. And the "point 3"? Don't ask. Statistics is not my strong suit.

P.O. Box 39 Atkinson, NH 03811

'45 40th REUNION JUNE 10-13,1985