1980

What's the problem, you ask? Can't I hold down a job? Do I suffer from itchy-foot syndrome? Am I practicing to become a Trailways bus driver or a Federal Express delivery man?

My address has changed for the fourth time in one year. Which I'm sure explains why the lengthy letters and perky postcards that you've all written haven't caught up with me (right?). This last move was the most protracted. I took the LSA-like summer that I never had as an undergrad, bumbling through the continent on freshman French and Berlitz-guide German. (I gave up in Italy, and just used hand signals. They seemed to get my drift.) I stopped back in San Francisco just long enough to pick up a garment bag and a loaf of sourdough before driving cross-country. And maybe, just maybe, that last leg of the journey was the most spectacular. Now I understand why they call the Grand Canyon grand, and the Vermillion Cliffs vermillion

. . . and much as I miss the Golden Gate and the hills of Marin, there's something familial, almost home-like, about crisp October mornings, ivy on brick, and rowers on the Charles.

Before I moved, I literally ran into CarlaBoehm and Carol Burns as they were sight-seeing in San Francisco. (Okay, I know that both Carla and Carol are married, but maiden names are so much more concise.) And as I drove eastward, I learned that Debra Hart is preparing for her wedding, and Dan Berry is acting physician-like in Boston.

Remember the notes we used to find in our Hinman boxes requesting that we stop by certain offices in Parkhurst or McNutt or Robinson? Remember the people that worked in those offices? Where are they now? Karen Blank is a dean at Columbia. Ralph Manuel is headmaster of Culver Academy, a private school in Indiana that was originally a military school. John Hanson is executive director of student life at USC, while Ann Craig Hanson is slaving away on her Ph.D. at UCLA. And Vickie Ball, who so valiantly coached us through corporate recruiting, is director of career planning at Brown.

Send letters.

31 South Russell Street #4 Boston, MA 02114