1947

The sweltering heat of June '88 has reached from the South and Midwest into New England, even to the hills of Hanover. We're not involved in a major drought, just parched grass a month prematurely, and a struggle keeping two dozen Christmas tree seedlings wet and alive.

Dottie and I have gone through the yearly ritual of opening up" our house and rental unit on Martha's Vineyard cleaning and vacuuming, plumbing, light repair work, roof work, and groundskeeping and then the fun (to me) of getting the sailboat (19 ft.) painted, cleaned, into the water, and properly rigged. At least two other '47s will be in the same throes; George and Sally Cohn and David and Pat Squire. We'll meet during the summer. Doug and Elton Birth, year-rounders on Nantucket, will view our problems lightly.

All this reminiscing is to put me in an October mood.

Townes Harris is planning again. His note to me urges all who can to plan on the Dartmouth weekend in Charlotte, N.C., October 1-2. This particular weekend has received a lot of exposure in this magazine and other mailings; it should be a wonderful way to spend a long fall weekend. Townes and Joan, joined by George and Marge Welch, will be staying at the hotel. (This must be a small town with only one hotel, right, Townes?)

Keep your traveling shoes on because our yearly gathering in Hanover will be October 21-22, for Cornell football and Dartmouth Night. Once again, Norwich Inn is our host, and we have 18 signed up so far. There'll be room for all at the banquet Saturday night, but rooms may all be taken. It's worth a phone call to the Norwich Inn to find out.

From Crystal Lake, Ill., comes word that Dr. Hjalmar Sundin has retired, after 36 years with the firm of Baxter & Woodman, environmental engineers. He joined the firm in 1952, and became its president in 1975. From a company newsletter, I glean they specialize in designing and installing waste water and storm sewer systems. I was impressed by the fact that his firm invented and installed the first of the now familiar storage water towers standing on a graceful curved support leg. Hal plans to do more mountaineering, skiing, and traveling, plus wood carving. (Might this mean a Hanover trip to show his Indian carvings?)

For your fall TV viewing, keep an eye on shows produced by GTG (Grant Tinker Gannett) for CBS. Grant will be attempting to win back prime-time top ratings, which now rest with NBC. The NBC achievement was while Tinker was their corporate chairman. If we ever get past the writers' strike, we should have a good fall and winter TV season. We could sure use some new material to replace the reruns.

63 Maple Avenue, Keene, NH 03431