1941

Fifty years ago, right about now, give or take a week or three, the Hurricane of '38 cut a swath south-to-north through New England. I recollect hanging out on Main Street while the howling wind was whipping the campus elms and everything else in Hanover. Otherwise, I suspect, our sophomore November was a forgettable month. But what a pistol of a storm!

Currently the storming is of another kind at Dartmouth, and the new DAM, freshly fashioned in living color, brings us the views of Dan Provost (Summer issue), DougBridge and Lew Johnstone (September), in letters to the editor, as well as the perspective of Bill Hotaling (September advertisement). In a different vein, in my mail bag, Bruce Brown writes of having spent seven weeks in Mexico "to get some work done on my teeth (excellent work at half the cost it would be at home) plus Spanish and ceramic lessons and aerobics."(l ought to check that out considering how much of my life I give to dentists.) Bruce expected to be seeing Don Ross. A reminder from BobHarvey, to all concerned via this column, to tack on a few bucks when paying class dues in order to sweeten the pot for the 1941 Scholarship Fund. The beneficiary of the Fund at this time, Eric Wellman '91, an engineering major, took a first year course load that included Differential Equations and Infinite Series. With snaps like that, it's no wonder he had time to be a disc jockey at WDCR and play intramural football.

Another communication from Bob forwarded an article from Time's house organ that he had received from Dick Krolik. The article reported on Roy Rowan's piece in Fortune's issue of June 6 "The Mafia's Bite of the Big Apple" and noted that he is coauthoring a book to come out next year "about the intersection of organized crime and legitimate business." Bob added a P.S. about a clipping on Rog Epply that he had saved to send me. "But," he laments, "of course now I've lost it." (Age, age, age.) The clip concerned a sketch that Rog made of Katherine Hepburn's home on Long Island Sound as viewed from the water. Apropos DAM, backing up a step, a nice letter from Ed Little (Summer) about his warm remembering of studying with Professor John Mecklin. I was similarly stirred, recalling Eugene Rosenstock-Huessy, when I learned of the conference on his work held in Hanover last August.

Well, after waving the flag for the mini last month, darned if I didn't finesse it for the second year running. This time it wasn't to go to Nicaragua, but for an orientation program for hospice volunteers. Dickie does on-call nursing at the hospice inn of St. Peter's in Albany and I'll be working with poetry in my contact with the dying and their next of kin. Steve Winship, although caught up in finishing a book, pinch-hit for me in taking minutes at the meeting of our executive committee, and I'll be passing along in due course the news that he collected from classmates assembled. Until December, therefore, let me close with a nice quotation from Rabbi Abraham Heschel: "What is necessary is not just to have a symbol but to be a symbol." Peace and Joy.

Monk Larson, 50-1 Woodlake Road, Albany, NY 12203