1944

Most of us were born in 1922, give or

take a year, and here it is November 1986 and we're just about to start facing up to 65. That has the nice ring of retirement to it, and we talked to a couple of the troops who have already made that move.

Charlie Pierce hung up his ophthalmolic stethascope in Mt. Kisco, N. Y., early this year, and bought a house in Castine, Maine. Wife Eloise had been badly banged up in a fall from a runaway horse, and the Pierces decided it was time for quieter things. They hankered for some ocean and just about picked Castine out of a book. "Actually" says Charlie, "we could pick Castine out on the map without our glasses." They moved in April and have been busy since fixing and chore-ing.

Castine, incidentally, is where Art andAlice Kiendl also walk the beaches, as does one of the country's finest poets, Philip Booth '47. If you haven't been reading Booth's poetry this week, now is the time to start. His seventh book of poems, Relations, came out this summer, and it's lovely.

If you want to get to Castine from Hanover, you'd most probably drive through Ossipee, N. H., and there you d find John Sanders, retired from a small business he ran for the music trade, but heavily involved in local zoning and development matters. "Wife Elizabeth and I," he says, "also have our hands full keeping our 1840 house in shape and tending to our couple of hundred acres.

Bob Eshbaugh, an engineer with Florida Telephone/dialed out five years ago, and he and Kitty spend most of their retirement time in western North Carolina, where (you guessed it) the Granny Squirrel and Snowbird mountains meet. But not much rocker-time on the front porch: Bob is chairman of the board of the local homeowners association, and he says they are now up to their necks rebuilding the mountains' waters systems. Also destined for North Carolina

(retirement next spring) are Bob and JoanRiebow. They'll be leaving Englewood, N. J. (Bob has been director of government sales, Corn Products Company), for Pinehurst, where sun and golf and tennis, in that order, will be the order of the day. Rieb has two grandchildren, one each via daughters in Rochester and Atlanta; and son Rob '76 is an air force captain with over 4,000 hours. .

Don Oakes, Stockbridge, Mass., retired from secondary school headmastering in 1977, but hasn't been very retiring since. He founded his own firm, DTO Consul tants, and for the past eight years has been helping a variety of non-profit organizations, such as schools, museums, and opera houses. "Lots of great groups and people," he says, "and I love it." He is also active with the Episcopal ministry and does a little preaching now and then. "I'm in good health," he says, "and Betty and I are having a great time."

A challenging letter from Gene Kinney: "About the time I retired from the Zenith Corporation in 1983, the N. Y. Yacht Club allowed the America's Cup to be retired to Australia. I decided to go after the Cup with a challenge from the Midwest through the Chicago Yacht Club and founded the Heart of America Challenge.

"We have recruited Olympic medalist Buddy Melges as our skipper, had the Great Lakes declared 'an arm of the sea,' designed a boat, tested it, and shipped it to Australia. We think we've got a very competitive boat.

"I hope you'll pass the word on to all good '44s that we still have room for a couple of million dollars and I'd welcome the opportunity to tell them just how it will be used." To your piggy banks, men.

From geology professor Dave Scotford at Miami (Ohio) University: "I'll retire next June and probably buy a sailboat to sail the seas but stay based here in Oxford. In the meantime, I've been chartering canalboats in England and sailboats in Florida."

It was nice seeing Californians Lem andEllie Arnold in nearby Woodstock, Vt., but the reason wasn't so dandy: the death of Ellie's mother at 89, and the sad business of closing up a house and a lifetime. I'm always reminded of Emily Dickinson s lines: "Sweeping up the heart/And putting love away . . "

Dick and Proc Ostberg's four kids pulled off a art-warmer when they organized a surprise 40th wedding anniversary party for their parents on Labor Day weekend. Lots of love in that one.

Finally, after mowing my multiple lawns all summer, the thought occurred: Why am I expanding this grass menagerie?

That's it. Blessings.

Lovejoy Hill Cornish Flat, NH 03746