1944

As you know, there's a two-month lead time in the preparation of Class Notes before they appear in the Alumni Magazine. Since this is for the November-December issue, I'm preparing it in August. And I'm doing so at our "camp" on Lake Clear in the Adirondacks.

Our camp, the Tajmahale, is 10 miles northwest of the village of Saranac Lake, where Mo Distin lived and had his construction business (in fact, he designed and built our Taj). A month or so ago I had dinner with his widow, Mili Distin, at one of her favorite restaurants in Saranac Lake. When the waiter asked for our drink order, I requested my usual VO and ginger ale, but Mili said that she'd like champagne! I immediately thought to myself that my future orders would be just plain iced tea and peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, but Mili promptly said, "Don't worry, Ezz, I brought my own champagne."

She then produced her own small bottle and asked the waiter to open it and serve her, as she usually did at the Corvo Restaurant—her favorite! Mo died in January 2004, and my wife, Pat, died in November 2003; so we talked for a while about being alone and ultimately about skiing and naturally about that wonderful '44 freshman ski team that included Phil Puchner, Jo Densmore, Eric Barradale, Rick Bradley, Wemo Epoly, Danny Donovan and others (shown on page 26 of our 50th reunion book). Imagine talking skiing in July! Come to think about it, when I am with a pretty lady, I can talk skiing any time!

Thirty-seven '44s solicit the rest of the class for contributions each year to the Dartmouth Fund. Our head agent, Ben Jones, rightly says that they are the "best in the world." As a result of their efforts this year, the class of '44 won another Green Derby. I congratulated Ben on this accomplishment, and of course he gave credit to his workers and the class as a whole. Ben has been head agent for 35 years! Longer than anyone in our class, and we still win Green Derbies!

P.O. Box 93, Lake Clear, NY 12945;(585) 586-5348; dart1944@aol.com