1930

News of DAM's freshman issue evoked some 1926-27 reminiscences from deep in 1930's gray matter. Ted Wolfs 67-year romance began at that time. Ted's sister was a senior at Smith and senior advisor to three freshmen, including one named Elizabeth Bull, to whom she introduced Ted. Question: was sister divinely inspired, was it her sense of humor, or was it an experiment in genetics, this mating of Bull and Wolf? Anyway, the romance continues.

Fred Scribner and I recalled Delta Alpha, that ignominious non-fraternity into which freshmen were "initiated" by their sophomore betters. One of the tortures in Russell Sage, where Fred and I lived, was for each of us to sing his high school alma mater. One song, from Athol High School, so delighted our tormentors that it had to be repeated, louder and louder. Fred recalls the freshman parade to a football game, each dormitory in its own costume. We in Russell Sage marched in dainty pink panties and bras, carrying on our shoulders, somehow, the avoirdupois of our late Don "Tiny" Tasker.

Doing his penance as a lowly freshman, Bob Keene jumped to the command of a sophomore on the top floor of Topliff to carry a ton of filthy rugs down to the back yard, beat them clean, and lug them up again. Bob's family, waiting to say good-bye to him, couldn't imagine what had happened.

Gene Magenau says he, Tom Donovan, and "co-trombonist" Johnny Sanders had third-floor rooms in Hubbard (which disappeared when Gile, etc., were built). When they had goodies from home they tried to share by tossing them at Nels Rockefeller's window, opposite theirs in Hitchcock. Garbage revealed by melting snow in the spring didn't say much for their marksmanship.

Hank Odbert recalls a ski trip he and JohnTiedtke took to a DOC cabin in Franconia Notch with the wrong ski wax for the snow conditions. They had to stop so frequently to chop icy snow off their skis that they missed their train in Littleton and had to spend the day there awaiting the next one.

More reminiscence coming if I have the room in October. See you in Woodstock.

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