1941

As I started to say last month, Chick Weisker became interested in genealogy in 1980 when the Boston Opera Company presented an opera composed by Chick's paternal grandmother's grandfather. Chick and Peggy later saw the composer's statue in Hannover (Germany, that is), and a street was named after him in Leipzig. Chuck and his wife have accumulated three volumes of family genealogy, and last May they attended a Weisker reunion of 70 persons from Germany and Austria in a small city near Dresden.

Another genealogist is my Sarasota cohort Don Taber, who attended an Elderhostel at the University of New Hampshire this summer where the participants researched their New England roots. Don has also just moved from his condo to a retirement community in Sarasota, where he finds more social contacts, many of them Ivy League retirees. He may lose his neighbor, though, a 91-year-old Princeton grad who is about to marry an old Vassar flame, age 90. Maybe the Florida fountain of youth is more than a gleam in the eye of Ponce de Leon.

Another Floridian, Bernie Doriss, normally at Hobe Sound, entertained his exroomie George Simpson some months ago. George was reported to be in good shape after his serious illness several years ago. Bernie was an ad sales rep for Fortune Magazine for many years and sent a son to Dartmouth, class of '70. Bernie and Helen, his sweetheart from Colby Jr. College, usually spend about seven weeks in the Connecticut area every summer, renting a place near their daughter in Bethel.

George Cruze may have found a fountain of youth in Annapolis, Md., because he's still working fulltime and loving it. He's business manager of a company controlling four newspapers and the Washingtonian magazine. George, that former member of the Barbary Coast band, did recently relax a bit with a long tour of the Canadian Rockies and Glacier National Park.

Guy Emerson and his wife have lived in Marco Island, Fla., for about 12 years since Guy's retirement. Now they are thinking about pulling up stakes and moving to the West Coast to be nearer their daughter in Sacramento and their son in Seattle. They've recently researched the area between the two and have their Florida house on the market. In the meantime Guy plays tennis two or three times a week and is learning the frustrating game of golf.

Another struggling golfer is Bill Freeman in Hinsdale, 111. Bill retired in 1988 from his two careers in international construction and suburban banking, but he still puts in many hours as a volunteer raising money for taxsupported educational organizations and national parks. He and Winnie spend their winters in Carefree, Ariz., and they keep in touch with Ed and Barb Lamer in Concord, Mass., as both couples trace their friendship back to dating days at Dartmouth.

Brodie Bjorklund sounded as good as ever calling from New York. The speech therapy after his mini stroke has done the trick. Brodie was looking forward to the September mini and so was I.

5975 Camelot Drive North, Sarasota, FL 34233