1939

We are sad to report the death of PerryThomas on August 1, who succumbed after putting up a gallant fight for one month following an operation in late June. (Obituary in this issue.)

We had a brief telephone chat with Betsy Wyman-Emmons following her Alaska trip early this past summer. Joeand Carol Hoover, who were scheduled to be aboard, ran into a health problem and had to withdraw. Bill and RobileeTomkins did follow through, and by Betsy's report, it was a most successful trip.

Perhaps you will recall our interest in Cape Cod in last month's column. This seems to be a gathering place for '39s during the summer months. We were still trying to enlist a guest scribe, and in the process, although unsuccessful with respect to our goal, we did turn over a bit of news about the thriving Cape community. For instance, Duke Lyons was off in September to Berkeley, Calif., to visit a son. About the time of our calls Ted andBetty Wolfe were expected to settle into Cotuit until the end of September, having returned from their new permanent quarters in Florida. Joe and Peggy Batchelder are in their fourth year of summering at Osterville. Joe makes it a point to keep his golf in good order and, we were told, was touring the Oyster Harbor course in a neat 75. The Batches will not be on hand for mini-reunions, opting for a trip to Europe in the fall. Bob Field has been busy with the Brockton Fair, which has been a part of his family holdings over the years. Incidentally, Bob's son is a lawyer in the new Portsmouth, N.H., office of BillGreen's prestigious law firm, Sheehan, Bass and Green.

Also on the Cape, at least in the summer, are Dr. Hal MacGilpin and PaulWinship. Paul is still connected with Westminster School, for whom he is an A-1 fund-raiser. We understand that Paul has something of a consortium of schools for whom he performs similar tasks.

Another Cape dweller is Joe Urban, retired from New England Telephone and living in Centerville. Just off the Cape you can find Dave Lilly in Nantucket during the summer, and Jack Boynton on Martha's Vineyard.

In quite another section of the world, Hank Conkle advises that he is having the best year in his 41 years of operating the country store in Cashiers, N.C. Hank said he'd received a letter from Dun and Bradstreet in which they advise that if the average mom and pop store endures as a business, the marriage of mom and pop is generally busted. This intelligence only causes Hank and Dot to give forth with a knowing chuckle. Hank, though, is feeling in a chuckling mood of late even without advice from D & B. He had just finished the massive chore of masterminding the new area medical center.

In early September your scribe was playing in the National Grass Courts Tennis Championships at the Agawam Hunt Club in Providence, R.I. It gave us the opportunity to contact Jack and Lil Cumming, who had just returned from a month in the British Isles. They had the courage to invite their entire family of kids and grandkids to join them, some 21 strong, for part of the time in London. They said it worked out beautifully. We suspect that the recent sale of Jack's business had something to do with this gracious celebration. The Cummings own and live in an extremely attractive vintage house built in the mid-1700's, which overlooks the capitol of Rhode Island and is but a hop, skip, and a jump from the Brown University campus, as well as the famed Rhode Island School of Design. As an incidental addendum, we are happy to report that we managed to hang in long enough to reach the round of 16 in a 64-man draw in singles before bowing to the number two seed, a guy who recently knocked off the fabled Gardner Mulloy in the National Hard Courts in California. I'm exhausted just thinking back to it, which brings me to a perfect moment for closing these notes.

Anybody who wishes to volunteer to write a guest column will be warmly accepted with no questions asked.

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