1948
I write this Saturday morning, September 21, 1996, the day our Dartmouth football team opens its 114th (my count) season against old rival Penn on Memorial Field. Our '48 mini is going on, and Bud Munson has persuaded many to make the well-remembered trek through the gorgeous hills to Hanover. John Hatheway felt sure laughter will characterize the affair, ending as always with delightful brunch at Bud and Ginny Gedney's. (You saw a wild Green win, 24-22!)
Do you recall that 1945 first postwar Penn game in Philly when our underdog Green, led by returned wounded war hero Merryll Frost '44 and the late Carl McKinnon '44, held the vaunted Quakers of Bednarek and Minisi at bay, 12-0? Several '48s probably Carl Evans, Norm Laird, Rollie Sontag, and Wid Washburn played in that inspiring loss. Remember?
A '48 Record: Ken Young saw new coach Bob Blackman's first game in 1955, a 21-20 loss to Colgate in Hanover. He also saw the next 285 consecutive games at home and away, ending 31 years later with the 66-12 loss to UNH at home in 1986, Joe Yukica's final year. Will Ken's record stand?
Bud and Bob Munson recently phoned old friend John Conlin in Washington after being out of touch many years. Then Hanover area '48s at the Gedneys' annual July 4th do had fun in writing a Dartmouth Hall card to John and Terry in friendly greetings. Nice way to resume old friendships?
Hurricanes raised Cain along the Atlantic coast this summer. Dick Repko of Wilmington, N.C., dodged Bertha in July, but Fran Sept. 5 nailed him. He lost many trees, chimney, shutters, but said his house survived, unlike the nearby beach-front devastation. Dick and Casey are fine, as are Dean and Helen Rathbun, who live on Kiawah Island just off Charleston, S.C. I had not talked to them since they gave me a racing drop-off one evening in 1954 at the old National Airport in Washington after dinner at their place in Chevy Chase, where architect Dean officed for many years to design and build more than 200 homes. They had to evacuate Kiawah, but couldn't find lodging before Columbia, 150 miles away. "Not a leaf was turned at home," said Helen, almost disgusted.
Dr. Jack Bobbitt saw nothing but water, water, water from the wild winds. He recently retired from his longtime medical post at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia in order to devote time to his hobby of marine history, design, and logistics, on which he is a recognized authority. Jack laughed with glee when reminded of glorious year 1946/47 when he and Lany Brisbin, Tom Huggins '49, and the late Dick Weaver roomed together in old New Hamp.
Judge Paul Johnson remembers with profound thanks that day in Hanover when Bob Cormac and other buddies got him to join in a trip to the Great Tunbridge Worlds Fair in a tiny isolated town in the Vermont hills. While in Tunbridge they managed to cadge some beer from a car full of visiting nurses from the Vet Hospital in WRJ. Back at Whitetown hours later, the two cars rendezvoused at a famous bar near Kolodny's where Shorty met Rita, a nurse from downeast Maine. He fell in love. Since then the couple lived in Indiana, where they raised seven kids and Shorty was Boone County judge for 20 years. Now they are retired in Maine, and Shorty wonders if old pal Pete Norton, likewise father of seven, was one of those who went to Tunbridge that great day. Were Hank Mueller and Mouse Taylor part of this? Remember?
10214 Del Monte, Houston, TX 77042
