1935

The unbelievable pace of victory in the Middle East makes us wonder what it would have been like if high-tech armaments had been available to us in WW II. Perhaps Germany and Japan would also have had similar fearsome weapons.

Having read about many classmates celebrating their 50th wedding anniversaries, Bud McClarin writes to say that he and Doris had theirs about a year ago. Cramp Carrick was in Naples, Fla., when Al Sherwood's charming wife, Jean, sadly passed away Cramp is still brokering insurance in Syracuse on a reduced scale and complaining about how his golf game has literally gone south.

George William Gahagan (known sometimes as Will but mosdy as Bill) has sent along from Carmel, Calif., a wealth of assorted information ranging from literature to weathervanes, real estate, and maple sugaring in Vermont. You will recall that he dropped out in 1934 but returned to graduate in 1949, staying on to teach a course in the Great Issues. His letterhead is a trotting horse weathervane, no doubt because his father was the secretary of the Hambletonian Society with offices under the grandstand of the historic Half-Mile Track in Goshen. Bill produced the following quote from a book about corporate tycoons, including John H. Patterson, the founder of the National Cash Register Corporation: "Patterson was born in 1844 . . . served in the Civil War... went to Dartmouth ... better than knowledge of Greek and ancient history, said Patterson, was the ability to use small words and big ideas, a knack he developed after graduating from Dartmouth and purging his mind of most of what he had learned there." It is doubtful that anyone could get away with that type of nonsense this day and age.

The March issue of the Smithsonian Magazine contains an amusing article by a 1943 Yale graduate about the difficulties he encountered when in 1983 he unwisely took on the job of secretary He points out that in his class of 850 there were about 25 active, extroverted, well-placed members whose names seemed to appear in the class notes on a regular basis. The other 825 were seldom heard from in spite of being encouraged and/ or hectored. This led the secretary to invent a classmate whose worldwide escapades and important friends made fascinating copy. The YAM finally spotted the hoax and after six years the secretary reported that his most interesting classmate had been run over by a truck. Your corresponding secretary freely admits that the temptation to invent a newsworthy classmate has been difficult to resist. Any news would be welcome and gready appreciated.

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