1926
Hawaii has been a target area for three 1926 families (and presumably others if they will make themselves known as escapees from The 1978 Winter): (1) Dan and Sally Drury, who during their seven-week stay came up with a story about Bob May's daughter Barbara (now married and living in Hawaii), who was at their Norwich, Vt., home for dinner at Carnival time with other dates and classmates of their son Herby '52, who was then in college. The main course was venison stew, after which Barbara wondered to Sally if her father would have approved of her meal — he being the author of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"; (2) Charlie and Helen Clare Macdonald, who had delay and great trouble getting out of Waban, Mass., and off the ground, covered with 27 to 30 inches of snow. Their month-long trip gave them ample time to stop off in California and Minnesota to visit with families; (3) Dick andKay Mann resumed their annual winter trek to Hawaii, Dick noting that in days gone by the trek more likely would have been to the ski slopes of his old hometown of Quechee, Vt.
Charlie and Lois Abbott flew past Hawaii to Indonesia and Bali in January, remembering that it might be well to avoid snows in Buffalo such as it had a year ago. They plan in May to attend Lois' 50th at Smith and hope also to spend a few days in Hanover.
Chuck and Nat Webster had a pre-Christmas visit in England, and Jim and EHie Jenkins were there in February before going on to Egypt for an Argonaut cruise of the Nile and the Red Sea.
Frequent visitors to England Ken and LydiaJoy decided to forego their 1977 trip to the British Isles and instead spent their vacation in Maine, later revisiting Williamsburg, Va.
Long time back, Charlie McKenna told of his son's new solar-heated home, garage, and workshop, as well as an 88-foot tower with windmill to generate electricity, and we are awaiting an update on the project. Charlie makes weekly visits to play cribbage with patients in two nursing homes in the Hanover-Norwich area, a most worthwhile social service.
The scheduled publication date for the class history written by Ed Hanlon may be about the time this column is being read — or possibly the history has already hit the streets. Ed has done a tremendous job, and 1926 is indebted to him for his labor of love, which has consumed countless hours of research and writing. Ed has a prodigious memory, an inexhaustible storehouse of data, and he must have preserved every conceivable piece of paper on which was printed any reference to class or classmate. In the computer field, it is the "miracle chip" that knows all; in 1926 it is Ed Hanlon. In Hanover Les Talbot and Nancy Elliott, Director of Alumni Records, have agreed to get the history printed, addressed, and mailed — a task which is greatly appreciated by the Class.
Granny Knight continues to be one of the "working members" of the Class, being a practicing allergy physician in Santa Monica, Calif. Granny has frequently spoken on the ecological impact of pesticides and has appeared before health boards in this respect. He says he still has much work to do and hopes to have the time to do it. Referring to the class birthday card, Granny has these reminders of yester-years in Hanover: Oldtimers day... Smith, Wellesley, Skidmore... Leb and the Junction. He noted that he never paid much attention to worldly things of this sort!
In a Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance routine, a newspaper clipping of a letter to the editor from the Wall Street Journal came via Larry Smith to Ed Hanlon to your scribe. The writer of the letter was Jerry Jones, Aurora, Ill., who was calling attention to the plight of many home-owned businesses both large and small, which are being forced to sell out because of confiscatory taxation at estate levels, and who was hopeful that legislation to alleviate the problem would be enacted.
Tubha and Mary Weymouth enjoyed a February vacation in sunny Naples, Fla., where Tubba lent presidential decorum to a group of 12 who represented 1926 and won a prize for the largest number to attend the annual meeting of the Southwestern Florida Club when Dr. Kemeny spoke. Attendees: Charlie and EdithBishop, Fritz and Ruth Lawson, George and IbraLeyser, Steve and Helen Mitchell, Jack and DotRoberts, and Tubba and Mary Weymouth.
Hub and Det Harwood took off for Florida just in time — before The Snow struck and stuck Boston. They checked in at Don Church's Belleview, Clearwater, Biltmore to enjoy sunny Florida. At this writing we are not sure as to the average temperature attained or the total hours of sunshine, but we are certain that with their genial host's welcome (we hope he had a rapid recovery from the visit of a wayward northern bug) and plenty of 1926 company in the area, all was most pleasant. Even from that distance, Hub kept up a barrage of news notes, some of which lingered for five days in parts unknown until the mails finally got through the snow.
Probably as freshmen 56 years ago, members of 1926 gave little thought to the substantial giving by alumni that helped make Dartmouth the fine institution of learning that already we had come to appreciate so deeply. In this first month of the 1978 Alumni Fund drive, Al Louer and his committee bring to us a challenge to continue this tradition of keeping the College financially strong so that new generations will have that same excellence in education. Our gifts now will be our answer.
9 Gammons Rd. Waban, Mass. 02168
