1931

The paragraph in our February class notes about the 1927 flood damage in the White River Junction area brought letters from three classmates.

Charlie Warne, while expressing doubt about the likelihood of his attending our 60th, recalled his assignment to help clean up the basement of a little general store a couple of miles up the White River.

Mil Hallenbeck came up with the details of his participation. It started on November 10, 1927. The outside temperature was 26 degrees, and a train of 20 boxcars loaded with 823 volunteers took off from Norwich to White River Junction at 8:15 a.m. The train then headed up the White River valley, dropping off work crews along the way. Mil's crew worked all day getting mud out of a cellar, bucket by bucket, through the cellar window into a wheelbarrow, resulting in the house owner finally being able to get his furnace started. At noon the Red Cross brought coffee, sandwiches and doughnuts, and at 5:45 p.m. the train took the volunteers back to Norwich. How, you ask, does Mil remember all of those details? Answer: by one of the safely kept twice-a-week letters he sent home all four years at Dartmouth! Mil intends to attend our 60th, so perhaps he could bring those letters in case anyone has a question about those years.

And Sam Taylor wrote that his Topliff roomie, George Uglow, and he jumped at the chance to dig out mud-buried Vermonters since no cuts in classes were charged to shovelers. In three days they shoveled out a number of houses and a filling station displaying a sign "If we please you, tell your friends." The sign, now long gone, relocated and stapled to the ceiling of 420 Topliff, brought a warning from the janitor: "If Spud Bray turns that (report) in to Dean Laycock, you'll be on probation for four and a half years."

Those reports on Desert Storm must have brought back memories of the rat race in Europe during WW II to many classmates.

Last call for our 60th!

2, Box 36A, Schnecksville, PA 18078

1931 (co) DARTMOUTH June 10-12, 1991