1956

Just to context these Class Notes, it's the very end of February in a winter that has seen enough precipitation in Vermont to rank among the 10 top snow accumulation winters since they recorded such things. Our home has a metal roof that dumps the snow around the perimeters, creating a kind of fortress mentality for its inhabitants. Last nights snow was deep and heavy. It cascaded off our roof, filling in the gap between the last storms pile and the house, blocked up the air vents and closed down our furnace. I'm sitting at the laptop, dressed in wool sweater and Polartec vest, thinking of May and June.

I don't mean to complain. It's been a great winter in the Upper Valley! The ski resorts love it, as do our kids and their children. Bill Hamilton and I have seen almost every home game of our men's and women's hockey teams, except for those trips to Florida or California Bill and Janet make for croquet tournaments. They've become real pros in what I understand is a form of chess on your feet. This winter Leo McKenna joined the ranks of some other honored classmates when he was awarded the prestigious Dartmouth Alumni Award. Wah hoo wah!

The online bunch has been captivated by letters home from China by Canaan, Larry Morses son. He's at Qing Hua University in a program of the University of Southern California. He's been traveling in the southwestern part of that giant country, experiencing its food and travel accommodations during what they call their spring festival.

Art Zich, whose work career took him to the Far East, recommended a cookbook for Canaan by a graduate of Sichuan University. In turn Walker Peterson was prompted to Google the Yi people Canaan had encountered and was later encouraged by Art to read Vermilion Bird by Edward H. Schafer, in Arts opinion, the best book yet on southern China. Art's got some great photos from traveling there years ago that may find their way onto the 'Net, among them "the stone forest...something geologist Paul Handverger would probably go ape over—an amazing lime- stone creation from the time when this plateau near the top of the world was at the bottom of the sea and the wastes from the creatures therein settled to the bottom and calcified into the rock that we see today."

Mini-reunions continue to draw folks to Florida during what we in the Northeast call Mud Season. Tony Bruscino, Ted Bremble and Cordi Lenci put together another Baci Italian feast in Sarasota, Sunday, March 9, attracting 25.

On the East Coast Howard Sodokoff and JohnHiggs made it a three-day affair at the Harbour Ridge Yacht and Country Club at Palm Beach, March 27 through the 30, with a guest list of another two dozen.

Remember, Les Reid and Sam Fry have planned a great four days in Seattle, September 21-24, which include tours of Boeing, Chateau Ste Michelle Winery, Tillicum Village, a Seattle harbor sunset cruise and much more. Give Sam a call at (360) 943-2575.

Don't forget the Alumni Association election. There's still time to vote online at http:// voxthevote.org.

P.O. Box 968, Quechee, VT05059-0968; (802) 295-8912; stewwood@aol.com