1939

Herb and Ginny Mattlage, Jack and Lil Cumming, George and Shirley Hanna, and Bob and Polly Cushman made the 100th anniversary of the founding of C&G this past May. Herb also reports that along with Ev Woodman he and Ginny made President Freedman's inauguration and states that his first impressions of our new prexy are that he is an outstanding scholar and administrator with a good sense of humor.

Dick and Bunny Brooks completed their third major voyage on their 40-foot cruiser Highlight this summer. They steamed up the Hudson, out the barge canal to Lake Erie, down to Cleveland and then by truck to Pittsburgh, then 900 miles down the Ohio, up the Tennessee, down the Tombigbee to Mobile, across the Gulf and past Florida, out to the Bahamas, and home via the Waterway. Nice visits with Mike Ellis, BobHowe, and Bozo Noland en route. Brooksy also penned a bit of light-hearted doggerel entitled "Concerns for the Huperson Race" (inspired by recent talk of abolishing "Men of Dartmouth":

What will happen To Hupeoplekind As the chairpersons spread Overflowing our seats of learning, Full of pregnant ideas With none of man's fears Their brave banner carriers Breasting the barriers Of discrimination To the elimination Of sex? What next? Do we play cowpersons and indians*? "Avast, there, people the pumps! Person the barricades! People your battle stations!" Will we be zonked by the hangpersons's knot Or watch down the street for the mail person? Out of this verbal sanguage We're losing our identity And language! Is academia nuts Like macadamia? Is hupeopleity doomed To be by women consumed? Is us? The words come from Mrs., Now taken away, Leaving an unidentifiable Ms., Leaving a question Not so much as to who is she, But who is we?

* Apologies to any descendants of native Americans who might read this. It was a childhood game played many years ago by descendants of immigrants.

We had a brief visit with Monty Gray this past August. He is living at a nursing home having suffered some brain damage and losing most of his sight. But he hears well, and apparently absorbs what he is hearing, so although we carried on a one-way conversation we have reason to believe that he welcomed our visit. Any who might wish to write Monty can best do so by addressing his wife at 46 Harbor View Drive, Portsmouth, NH 03801. She will read him your message. I think he'd appreciate hearing from you.

"After writing two novels that went nowhere I decided to get help and found a most unlikely place, the University of lowa. Their writing workshop is 51 years old and was the first U.S. college to offer a graduate degree in writing. I'm spending the month of July here." So says Roy White.

Until December...

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