1948

Dave Jones of Schenectady arrived in Hanover with about 250 other civilian '48s in July 1944 while WWII was still in full swing. If we were a little lacking in discipline or too inclined to high-jinks or pranks, the "Uncle Sam wants you!" poster in Hanover's post office on Main Street in those days served as a ready explanation for this active group—which resided in Wheeler, Richardson, and the old Crosby until they enlisted or were called by their friendly draft boards. Dave stayed only one semester, managing to join the Marine Corps that fall when still 17. He was in the first wave of the Fifth Marines which went ashore the first day at Iwo Jima the following February 19.

Dave, a BAR man, doesn't know how he made it, but he somehow went right across the island to Yellow Beach, the hateful, metal-spitting Suribachi always on his left. During this period when Dave needed a laugh, he thought back to Hanover. Remembered his roommate, the late BeechLockwood in 312 Wheeler. Remembered Sam Katz down the hall and Sam's roommate, Jose Monteverde or "Little Joe Greenmountain. " Remembered the now departed Roger Tenney, whose dad had been a close friend of Dave's dad at U. of Minnesota. He remembered, too, JerryWensinger and Jay Rutledge, Jack Bobbitt and Lan Brisbin and all the other good fellows he had known and the laughs he had had that summer a few months back. And he particularly remembered—and still remembers today—the following incident.

One day that summer a high ranking admiral of stern visage and pompous carriage, plus endless gold braid, appeared with several aides. The admiral, up from Washington, held an inspection of the Dartmouth marine, V5, and V12 units as, accompanied by the military band, they paraded past the admiral and his staff standing in a line by the senior fence. It was a noisy review and the community turned out to watch the colorful ceremony. Main Street was empty! Dave recalls that just as the inspecting visitors' right arms and hands went up in the formal salute, one of Hanover's famous dogs suddenly appeared. He came from nowhere, stopped immediately behind the ramrod-stiff admiral, lifted his leg, and let go his own salute to the splendid occasion on the admiral's trousers. Dave says the ranks of marchers wavered for just a second as the surprised admiral jacked six feet or so into the air—by which time the dog was long gone. Another successful disruption for the Hanover pack. The memory kept Dave going in some tight spots later.

Bob Douglas remembers that first winter of 1944-45 when he, Bill Burke, and the late Jack Hamilton lived on the second floor of Richardson. They left the room windows wide open one night when it dropped to -40 degrees. The pipes froze, split, and a mess of a lake formed the next day in the room and that end of the dorm, dripping into the rooms below. The word got to Dean Strong, and invitations were extended to Bob, Bill, and Jack to visit him in Parkhurst. Bob says Dean Strong was a first-class person and all he could really say was, "Well, don't do it again!" after the boys explained they didn't know it could get that cold in Hanover. It even froze the fermenting applejack they had hanging out the window.

Dr. Howie Westney in Schenectady is supported by John Fenno and Dr. HarryWood of the same area in pointing out we '48s are becoming long in the tooth and that we owe it to ourselves to get as many '48s as possible in Hanover next June while we can still enjoy it together. Reunion committee chair Bud Gedney and class president Earl Chambers second the motion with emphasis. Get your application in! Be there, in the Granite State in '88!

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FANTASYIC FORTIENTH JUNE 13-16, 1988 Be in the Granite State in '88