1951

Skip and I, in San Francisco for a family visit last Thanksgiving week, were invited to lunch by Pete Bogardus, who is still hooked up to the plow and loving every minute of his securities business. Peter has been in touch regarding leadership gifts for the 45 th Reunion, about which more later in this column.

From Santa's Mailbag: Russ Dilks is still deeply involved in the BSA, especially that organization's Junior Leader Training, with which Russ had been involved for many years until stepping down in 1995.

Art Worden went on full alert when he read here recently of Monahan and Merkle's Green Lantern careers. Art wrote that he and Ed Lathem were part of that crew and Bob Bowler was the head waiter. "We found out that as a dishwasher you only had to work one meal a day to get two whereas the waiters had to work both of them." Art thinks it was Bill Merkle's '34 Ford, with its frozen transmission, that he bought for $25. That summer of 1950 Art and Pete Henderson drove the car, absent any second gear, to Colorado. They worked at forest firefighting.

Red Balaban sent me a second cassette of his one-performer/multi-instrument jazz anthologies, better even than the first. Call Red in West Haven, Conn., (203) 933-4851 to order.

We are saddened to report the death of Amos Gile, who suffered a stroke last July and died in November. The class extends condolences to Amos's wife, Lorna, and family. An obituary will appear in a later issue.

Reunion memories continue this month with a flashback to our 20th as reported by Russ Dilks in the summer of 1970. One hundred four classmates brought 87 wives and 121 children, led by the JohnBoardmans with their eight, closely followed by the Buck Scotts with six and SamRobertses with five! President John Kemeny welcomed us. We danced in the class tent adjacent to the Sphinx Tomb. The Storrs Pond picnic, shared with also-reunioning '50, was cold and wet. Saturday night's dinner, MC'd by Pete Bogardus, featured FrankSmallwood, who took us back 19 years with a review of The New York Times from that very date in 1951. Dilks' write-u*p charged Charlie Breed with nepotism when, as Reunion music committee chairman, Charlie chose his own band to play for us. The newly elected executive committee included President Howie Phillips, Treasurer Merle Thorpe, Secretary Dilks, and members Pete Bixby, Dick Dutton,Dave Hilton, Ed Isbey, Peirce McKee,Bill Michener, Craig Murphy, ReadPerkins, Dave Saxton, Jack Sutton,Hunter White, and lav Wolf

If your idea of fun is to see some of these guys again next June 10-13, take a moment now to send your intention card back to John Clayton and Dick Price. More than 110 classmates have already done so and we expect a total of more than 200.

Tell me your memories and current doing's. E-mail is the easy way.

Bill Brooks, 48 Webster Point Road, Madison, CT 06443, (203) 245-7191,

1951 1996