1938

Box 42 Waterford, ME 04088

A few gleanings from this month's meager news file. Responding to the College's request for valid addresses for six of our classmates which was included in the March class notes, Red Boutilier wrote that by the simple expedient of consulting the area phone book he discovered that Converse Fenn still apparently lives in or near Belgrade Lake, Maine.

I've sent the information to Hanover, though since there has been no change of address for Connie, I'm at a loss to know how he ended up on the College's "Mail Return" file in the first place. In any case, if any of the rest of you have information on addresses for any of the remaining five on that list, please let me know.

A card from Russ Tolles from St. Thomas bears evidence that he and Alice escaped the dubious joys of spring in New England by taking a cruise to the Virgin Islands. "Quite a spectacular trip," Russ wrote, "but I wouldn't want to live here—too far from New England." Naturally, I appreciated the card, but the nostalgia for New England rang a bit hollow, I fear, since the very day Russ's card arrived was also the peak point of the most severe floods we've had in Maine since 1936. We hadn't seen the sun for ten days, and our basement looked like the deep end of a swimming pool.

From Bill Lansberg of Tucson, Ariz., (via John Scotford, to whom he wrote) a couple of interesting coincidences. Two summers ago, when he and his wife, Sarah, were visiting Cape Cod, Bill wrote, a good friend of mine told me to look up his cousin, who lives in the oldest house in Wellfleet. When Bill and Sarah found the house they also discovered the residents were familiar: Paul and Barbara Bauder! And then just a few months ago when the Lansbergs went to their church in Tucson they discovered that the guest ministers that Sunday were none other than the Rev. and Mrs. H. Telfer Mook of Beulah, Minn. What the Mooks were doing in faraway Tucson is unrecorded. Nevertheless, Bill says, he and Tel "talked afterward and relished the prospect of our 50th."

This being the last column until September, Dick Francis suggests I remind you of two important upcoming dates. The first is our mini-reunion. It will be held October 30-31, which is the weekend of both the Yale game and Dartmouth Night. This time there will be a new wrinkle: we'll join the Dartmouth Night parade as the honored 50-year class (which means; if my memory serves, that we'll be called upon to ride that ancient red fire truck up East Wheelock Street). Now, surely you can't resist that, can you? Dick promised full details in a mailing around mid-July.

And then of course there's the big one: our 50th Reunion. That will occur in Hanover on the weekend of June 10-12—incredibly, a little less than a year after you read this. And there is life after Hanover, Dick says: there will be a post-reunion reunion, for those who want to participate, at the Spalding Inn, Whitefield, N.H., June 12-15. Again, full details will shortly be forthcoming from Dick as well as the many loyal classmates he has recruited to help him with various aspects of the 50th. And so suffice it to reiterate the dates: the mini, October 30-31; the 50th, June 10-12 in Hanover, June 12-15 in Whitefield.

With this column I also complete my first full year as your secretary. You may have noted that during my tenure I have scarcely been inundated with news about you people out there. These, notes, I fear, cannot become worth your reading unless they also become worth your writing. In short, my news depends on you. So please! Let me hear from you. I'd also appreciate suggestions for improvement of this column. What would you like to see here that you don't see? Any suggestions—possibly including "Drop Dead!" will be welcome.

THE-WAY-IT-WAS DEPARTMENT

By June 50 years ago our junior year had ended. Duly reported in the Dartmouth, Wet Down had been held on May 26 and with it induction of the '38 Palaeop. (Bob Archibald, President; Herb Christiansen, Vice President; Clark Mattimore, Secretary; Bob Reno, Treasurer; Dave Bradley, Sid Cardozo, John Cutler, Merrill Davis, Walt Dunlap, Bob Foley, Lou Frick, Bob Lang, Art Soule, Bill Thomas, and Carl Von Pechmann). Also in late May, the "Hindenburg" had crashed in flames at Lakehurst, George VI had been crowned in London, and the Dartmouth Alumni Fund had reached a new record of $67,143.56. But by early June, exams finally finished, most of us had left Hanover. And there was one June event worth noting: the class of 1937 entered the wide, wide world on June 14. We had become The—Grand—Old—Seniors.