1981

I keep thinking I should unplug the phone when I go to bed, but I never do. You never know, Uncle Phil used to say: it might be a source calling with stunning details of the previously undisclosed $50 billion Exxon-RJR Nabisco merger (that's a joke, actually), or Mom wondering whether I'd finally gotten my socks to match. Something big.

Or it could be Harold Williams, as it turned out to be around 2:00 a.m. one recent morning. Harold, apparently taking quite seriously the newly imposed responsibilities of Class Notes Mascot, wanted me to know that John Noble, who is studying linguistics at the University of Virginia, was father last summer to what Harold believes was a baby girl. I said, "That's wonderful, Harold! Really, great stuff—keep it coming."

And he did. I returned to the comfort of my Sealy Posturepedic, while Harold engaged in lively banter with my answering machine. He said that Mark Frawley still is on the Broadway sidelines, felled by a knee injury incurred jumping barrels in "Starlight Express." Mark has written the music to a revue that may go into production next year.

The next afternoon, ironically, I received a highly personal letter from Greg Slayton, who probably is subject to Harold's latenight discourses even more than I and, as a result, has handwriting that is almost completely unintelligible. Greg has started at Harvard Business School, which is why his letter began with a telltale leftover Lotus printout. This, having survived, as he says, "the subtle mysteries of Southeast Asia and the barren desolation of the African Sahel," plus a summer in Chicago.

Then, it began—an avalanche of'81 mail that I can attribute only to a groundswell of popular support for our new mascot. "Go, Harold!" wrote Julie Stiles Matuschak, whose handwriting is relatively legible. Julie gave birth on October 24 (her birthday) to son Nicholas Noyes. Nicholas has opted to move in with Julie and Mark in Marblehead, Mass., even though Tobyand Sally Ankeny Reilly live just down the street. Julie works for the Probate and Family Court in Salem; Mark is an attorney with Hale and Dorr in Boston.

Allen Smith—who writes, "Harold, you're the greatest!"—has joined Lynnfield Medical Associates, and now practices internal medicine at two leading hospitals in the Salem/Peabody area: Salem Hospital and J.B. Thomas Hospital. Allen got his M.D. from the University of Massachusetts, then interned at Pennsylvania Hospital.

There was more. Anne ("Harold for President!") Putney Swire finished her M.B.A. at Wharton, and spent the summer marketing residential long-distance service for MCI.

But the REAL NEWS (Anne's emphasis) is, she had an eight-pound, eight-ounce son named Nathan on September 19. "He's terrific, of course," ana Anne says that she'll do some part-time consulting and writing until Nathan is big enough to consult and write himself.

Happy wintering.

529 Columbus Avenue #16, Boston, MA 02118