1944

Last month we mentioned that the '44 Chicago Irregulars were meeting regularly and having fun; well, they haven't got a thing on our Hanover crowd. We've got over two dozen '44s within shouting distance of Bartlett Tower and upwards to 20 of us get together for lunch once a month, usually at the Norwich Inn. We've also added Christmas parties and summer picnics, which obviously includes spouses, so you can see that we've got the place surrounded.

Our regular Irregulars include, in no logical order, Bob McLaughry, Rod Morgan,Bill Craig, Karl Musser, Jack Stephenson, Dick Whiting, Wemo Epply, FredDaley, Burt Bickford, Swampy Marsh,Clint Gardner, Tom Close, Jim Elliott,Win Martin, Don Pfeifle, Jim Browning,Dave Eckels, Eric Barradale, MerleHagen, Fritz Hier, and George Bruce. And for Bruce it's a long shout: he comes up from Essex, Conn.!

Our ranks thin a bit during the winter as some of the sun and sanders depart for Florida: the Craigs, Hagens, Elliotts, and Stephensons all head south, as do the HenryMarshalls from Norwich, the Bob Wileys from Gilford, and the Warren Kimballs from Hopkinton.

For us 'uns who hang around for the skiing, we've got it made. It's free at nearby Mt. Sunapee or Cannon for the over-65ers. As Pfeifle and I were saying the other day while swishing down Sunapee, "You sure can't beat the price."

An important item that somehow slipped by us: a year and a half ago Dick Whiting was appointed a trustee at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, an institution most of us remember well when it was Colby Junior. Dick and wife Joan live in a lovely house on the lake in the Eastman development, just up the road from ColbySawyer.

Also unreported heretofore is an innovative and generous 1987 grant of $900,000 from the Fairchild Foundation to provide start-up funds for Dartmouth junior faculty research projects. The grant is named for Walter Burke, former Dartmouth Board of Trustees chairman and Fairchild chairman. A spokesman said at the time, "It is highly appropriate to name this grant after Walter Burke because of his years of dedication and concern toward faculty development and scholarship."

Back in February we happened to catch a couple of takes of the TV special "Lonesome Dove," and didn't we perk up when one of the characters turned out to be a fellow name of Blue Duck. Took us back to undergraduate days at the Nugget and a Saturday night western. An Indian in the flick had the name Blue Duck and somehow it got pinned on fraternity brother John Eaton, and to some of us he's been "Blue Duck" Eaton till this very day. A Christmas card, signed "Blue," says he's opened a new business helping boat owners market their wares. "I'm operating from Maine to the Chesapeake," he says, "under the slogan 'All Flags Flying.'"

And speaking of Christmas, we got a card from Joey and Steve Tate in response to our annual Christmas verse. Out of the blue (no relations to paragraph above), I had written: "Sapphire Beach would be just great/ St. Thomas for Steve and Joey Tate." And Joey responded:

A Merry Christmas to you Hiers Your poetry indeed inspires. You even picked the right resort: Indeed, St. Thomas was the port Featured in our latest cruise

Which makes you best of all gurus! Well, we don't call shots all that often. Maybe we should start playing Megabucks. That's it. Blessings.

P.O. Box 24, Lovejoy Hill, Cornish Flat, NH 03746