1962

Class Secretary Richard Hannah, after an arduous week of caring for Salems sick, often escapes with wife Joan to his Cape Cod hideaway. Once there, he kicks back in an over-stuffed chair, pours himself a vintage pinot and begins dialing numbers. In nine years of writing Class Notes, Sir Richard has never missed a beat, never been out of tune nor failed to render the nuanced lyric. True to his undergraduate days in the Glee Club and Marching Band, he has dutifully marked our time and sung our song. So when, from his hideaway, he dialed my number a few weeks back and invited me to sit in as his "side man' for a set or two, I was honored to oblige, even though I don't really know how to read music.

John Coe, on the other hand, does. He also knows how to create music. Recently retired from a distinguished career with the Wyoming Arts Council—after serving with the arts councils of New Hampshire and Nebraska—John writes: "One plan with which I am already engaged is to score much of the music I have written through the years. There is a lot of it, ranging from piano pieces and musicals to pieces for Orchestra Ethiopia, chorus and voice [composed during Peace Corps days]. To date I have scored or modified upwards of 15 pieces with lots more to go. The other task will be to record them. Little by little I am getting my piano fingers back into shape."

I remember when John, in his senior year, hauled a used upright to our fourth-floor New Hamp dorm room. That spring the halls were alive with the sound of Li'l Abner and Johns sundry original compositions. These days, to "encourage the muse," John resides in a beautiful place known as Retreat of the Rockies, some 30 miles west of Cheyenne." As off-season caretaker he shares a 250-acre parcel with "deer, coyotes, foxes, rabbits, all kinds of birds and elk"—and, of course, a trusty piano. Stay tuned for his musical recordings. Now that he is "retired," John hopes he will have more time to get reconnected with Dartmouth friends and activities. We hope so too.

The muse that visited Bill Sadd and wife Patti over the past several years sings the "Song of the Open Road." Committed RVers, they traveled from coast-to-coast, toured each of "the lower 48," worked with Habitat for Humanity wherever possible, and finally settled in Fredericksburg, Texas. "Our house," Bill writes, "is in the back corner of Heritage Hill Country and, looking over our fence, we survey a 65- acre peach orchard with frequent colorful sunsets over the ridgeline just beyond. Their annual roadtrips end at a beautiful setting indeed, where Pat excels at quilting and crafts and Bill enjoys acting in local musical productions such as The Fantastiks and South Pacific. Even at home in Fredericksburg, they hear their journey's call: "To look up or down no road but it stretches and waits for you.

307 Sewickley Ridge Drive, Sewickley,PA 15143; (412) 741-9088; jbhaines@comcast.net;11 Sunset Road, Salem, MA 01970; (978) 744-0655 (fax); rjhannah@massmed.org