1938

P.O. Box 42 Waterford, ME 04088

Even though as I write I see out my window only the waning scarlet and gold of a crystal-clear, mid-October Maine day, I know that when you read this the white of December will have descended (at least in these parts it will have). And so let me take this opportunity to send you all best wishes for the holiday season. Christmas, the New year, Hanukkah: whatever it is you celebrate, may your holidays be full of joy. For the new year perhaps the old, familiar wish is again appropriate: may we be granted the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

After the holidays, the gray months and with them, for some of us, thoughts of escape to warmer regions. If it's Florida you have in mind, then two '38 events should be noted on your calendars now. One of them, mentioned in this column late last summer, is the second annual 1938 Golf Tournament, which is planned for sometime in mid-March at an easily accessible club somewhere in mid-Florida. Last year 13 classmates, most of them Florida residents, teed off to inaugurate this event. The aim is to expand the number of participants in 1987, and so you Snowbirds are particularly urged to show up this time. For the specific date and place of the great '38 Golf Extravaganza of 1987 write now to either of the two joint managers of the event, Paul Feakins (3901 S.E. St. Lucie Blvd., Stuart, FL, 33494) or Harry Connor (Pelican Bay, 531 Bay Villas, Naples, FL 33963).

The second event is the Dartmouth Sunshine Regional Conference on the weekend of March 27-29 in Winter Park, Fla. The College is furnishing three faculty speakers, the Glee Club will give a concert, an alumni seminar is scheduled, and former Dean of the College Thad Seymour '49 A, now president of Rollins College, will host a reception at Rollins. The planning for the host Dartmouth Club of Central Florida is being handled by Rollie Jones, the secretary, and he and Dick Francis have agreed to try to mesh at least one class event into the conference schedule, perhaps a '38 dinner on Saturday and/or a Sunday breakfast before a golf match for all conference attendees which is being arranged by TomRoberts, president of the club. Details, both from the College and the class, will shortly be forthcoming.

A welcome note is at hand from JimBriggs, the squire of Damariscotta, Maine. He and his wife, Anne, Jim reports, recently had lunch with Alex and LibbyJones in the new year-round house the Joneses have built adjacent to their summer cottage in Friendship, Maine. The house, Jim says, has a "lovely location, lovely view, handsome accommodations and landscaping." That figures. For Friendship is on a piece of the Maine coast for which "handsome" is an understatement.

By this time you will no doubt have read the profile/review of Jack Hemingway and his recent book, Misadventures ofa Fly Fisherman, written by Ev Wood in the October Alumni Magazine. Few of us are aware, as Woodie writes, that the author, Ernest Hemingway's son, went to Dartmouth for a year before leaving in 1942 to serve in World War II. Since his retirement from Pan Am Woodie has written and published several articles on fly fishing and bird hunting, subjects in which his expertise is surely world class.

THE-WAY-IT-WAS-DEPARTMENT

December 1936: a successful football season behind us, first semester exams still somewhere out there in the vague future. For the present, only one thought: Christmas vacation! From the Dartmouth, December 17, 1936: Recess Begins Today at12:15/Highways Within 300 Mile Radius Reported in Good Condition for Motorists. With the official end of classes at 12:15 today almost the entire student body will leave Hanover by the various means of transportation available to indulge in a little 'relaxation' until the end of Christmas recess on Tuesday, January 5.

"According to reports received late yesterday roads in all directions from Hanover within a radius of 300 miles are in good conditions for motoring, and with continued favorable weather not only automobiles, buses, and regular and special trains will run as scheduled but also a Dartmouth special aeroplane will augment the regular air service. . . . The Boston & Maine Railroad has arranged three special trains to Chicago, Boston, and New York . . . ." The Chicago special left Norwich station at 1 p.m., the New York special at 1:15, and the Boston special at 1:30. And that "special Dartmouth aeroplane" carried all of six students all the way from Albany to Chicago!

Whatever means we used, we all left Hanover that December 17, 50 years ago with Professor Kenneth Robinson's recommendations (made at one of his famous pre-vacation lectures the day before) of six Broadway shows to choose from, should we be lucky enough to get to New York: Gielgud's Hamlet, Katherine Cornell's Wineglass Victory, Tovarich,Johnny Johnson, To-night at 8:30, and Red,Hot, and Blue.

Then as now, Happy Holidays.