1956

Just before the annual class meeting in January, I received a letter from Alan Peyser about an item of business he hoped the meeting might address. Since I was unable to attend, I'm not sure if any action was taken, but a few excerpts follow: "At the last two mini-reunions I have made the suggestion that the only way to get the Dartmouth administration to listen to the '56ers or others who think like us is to put conditions on the money that we give the College ... One of the conditions could be that at least three Trustees who think as we do are placed on the Board of Trustees." Alan's hope was that the class, which had chosen not to act on this idea in the past, might now be persuaded to do so.

In a letter to the class officers, Clem Main referred to the Alumni Town Meet ing which Doug Keare and Bill Tell have been working on for several months. "It represents, in my view, a constructive initiative to fill the void which has developed, as Doug suggests, as a result of increasing polarization within the Dartmouth community over a number of issues." The proposed Town Meeting was another of the items under discussion at the January class meeting.

It was a pleasure to see John Van deKamp on the tube the other night making a verbal assault on the sale of assault rifles in this country. The next night, of course, the NRA came out in defense of the sportsman's right to purchase and use such weapons. With all due respect to any NRA classmates, right on, John!

Spoke recently with my old roomy, Jim Hoshal, for the first time in some 32 years. Jim left New Jersey last August to move to Midland, Mich., where he has taken over as head of Dow Chemical's customer service division. Jim and Glenn have a married son and a daughter soon to be married, both still living in the East. When I spoke with Jim, the winter there had thus far been fairly mild. Glenn led me to believe that she ana Jim might well return East when he retires. I suggested that he get back for a reunion before he even considers retirement!

By the way, Jim asked if I had heard anything from or about Lou Metzger. Fact is, I haven't. Where are you, Lou? How about some news about your last 32 years?

Finally, another note from Fred Oman, thanks to whom I have not recently had to resort to fiction in this column. Fred warned that, based on his own experience in this job, fiction can be dangerous. "Besides the adminstration, which did not see my humor, I also incurred the wrath of the Massachusetts State Patrol and Hare Krishna, not to mention all Princeton graduates, and a few of my classmates. On the other hand, I alw ays had a column for the next deadline." Thanks, Fred. You've been immensely helpful.

Let's hear from some of the rest of you. Till next time ...

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