1956

One sometimes finds interesting tidbits about classmates in the world's smaller newspapers. Did you know, for instance, that John Van deKamp's favorite food is a cheese enchilada? That his personal heroes are Desmond Tutu, Sir Thomas More, and Bobby Kennedy? That his favorite movie is "On the Waterfront?" And his favorite drink is a martini on the rocks? Thanks to the Ocean County Register, which ran a profile of John during his campaign for governor of California, all such earthshaking info is now in the public domain.

I also found out that it was his ebullient roommate, the current honorable editor of Wah-Who-Whisper, who brought the somewhat reclusive Van de Kamp "out of his shell" when he first arrived in Hanover.

Speaking of that erstwhile roomie, the Nantucket papers both featured a story in July about the then upcoming 25th anniversary celebration of Flint and Corky Ranney: On July 31, 1965, the Ranneys were married in a small ceremony in the vicinity of Los Angeles, Calif. Shortly after their wedding, the two newlyweds flew to Boston, took a taxi to New Bedford, and drove Flint's antique 1927 American La France fire engine from New Bedford to Woods Hole to take the boat to Nantucket. While Flint and Corky were on the upper deck, some friends tied beer cans to the back of the fire engine. After three hours or so, they arrived on Nantucket, drove to Wauwinet (beer cans dragging the entire way), and spent their honeymoon in the Wauwinet House overlooking the head of Nantucket Harbor.

On Tuesday, July 31, 1990, the stillhappy couple celebrated their silver anniversary with a mini-reenactment, driving the same fire truck to Wauwinet presumably minus beer cans to spend a night at the newly-restored Wauwinet, compliments of their five children who already have plans "to do this all over again for their 50th!"

Perhaps you can tell from the preceding that there's been little mail lately. Must have been a good summer. It's time, though, to give me some meat to chew on, please. In the meantime, we're back to birthdays.

'56ers turning 56 this month include my old buddy Bill Beard, who turns the mark on the 15th. He is preceded by Bob Wolfe and Crile Doscher on the first and the fifth, not to mention the indomitable Herb West, who celebrates on the third. Tom Porter will make the grade on the 12 th, and Jim Breeden, Dick Keesey, and Jim Flynn follow on the 14th. Bill Grigsby has his big day on the 15th, along with Beard and Gill Livingston, and then Robert Grossman on the 16th. Next there's Arnold Levin on the 18th, and Matthew Lorimer and Prentiss Carnell on the 22nd. There are a whole mess of others, but, for the sake of saving time and space, we'll skip to Dave Tiersten on the 28th and Al Dekker, whose happy birthday is the 29th.

To all of the above, and to those I've missed, feliz navidad, and a Happy Halloween to the rest of you. Till next time.

51 Tradd Street, Charleston, SC 29401