1935

Dean Couper recently attended a Wolf Trap musical with his host Shelton Stanfill (former director of the Hopkins Center). During his interesting talk he spoke of his close association with the class of 1935, particularly through its contributions to the Hopkins Center. Earl Arthurs, after an operation to relieve a pinched nerve, has returned to cruising in the Greek Isles. He has offered to advise any unattached member of the class as to how to become a cruise-ship host. Reyand Laura Moulton flew to Anchorage for a trip by sea through the inside passage ending up in Vancouver.

Unfortunately, news crawls into this office at a snail's pace and the above messages were the only ones received prior to the deadline. We are, however, reminded of our first year. When we matriculated, the Depression was at its worst, Roosevelt was about to be elected, and Hitler was secretly preparing for the next 1,000 years.

In August New York Governor Roosevelt proposed a 50-percent income-tax hike to raise $20 million for the unemployed. Barbara Walters was born on the September 25. The following month Jack Sharkey beat Primo Camera for the heavyweight title, and Al Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion. In December Hitler told a group of U.S. journalists that he was "a democrat."

By 1932 Japan had taken Manchuria and was attacking Shanghai. In February Jack Shea '34 sang the Olympic hymn to open the winter games at Lake Placid. Teddy Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor were born that month. The U.S. deficit passed its then highest peacetime mark of $2 billion while Hoover kept insisting that a balanced budget was the key to business recovery. During the summer Hoover was nominated by the Republicans while Roosevelt, promising a "New Deal," received the Democratic nomination. By August 1932 the number of unemployed had risen to 11 million but Hoover was still optimistic that the "major financial crisis" had been overcome. Riots, crimes, dissatisfaction with politicians, and general unrest existed. Canine actor Rin Tin Tin died just before we returned to Hanover in 1932.

Mid-October is the deadline for this column in the Winter issue. If we receive no interesting news about classmates prior to that deadline, we will return to some of the major events which occurred while we were sophomores.

c/o Gordon Farm, RR 1, Box 83, Sutton, VT 05867-9721