Class Note 1938
Issue
March-April 2021
As I write this column at the very end of a tumultuous 2020, I find it’s not always easy to have hope in your heart. But I believe we all try to have hope and peace in the future. Spirits can be lifted in so many ways. I want to share a moment that brought hope to me in a very small, but all-consuming way.
I had the pleasure of receiving an email from a gentleman from the class of ’82, Stuart Washington. And now I can add a gentleman from the class of ’82 to my very dear class of ’38. It was totally unexpected, and I have not had the pleasure of meeting him. But he took the time to tell me he valued “elders” and so enjoyed hearing of those days at Dartmouth so many years ago. He made my day, to say the least. The past is all I have to write about now; my class is not as large as it was years ago, though their memories are now my memories and I hang on to them with all my strength. We have so many things to be thankful for in this world—we need to remember just how lucky we are to live where we live. It’s not perfect by any means, and as time goes by we need to remember what is important and what is really small potatoes. Bottom line: Treat people with respect and kindness and your rewards will come back to you tenfold.
From a freshman letter: “I’m writing this from the hospital—Dick’s House—where I will be taking a little rest for a day or two. Now, Mother, don’t say you expected this all along. It wasn’t the skis’ fault. I had a little trouble making them agree on the same direction while skiing on Velvet Rocks and, as a result, I found myself upside down in a hemlock grove. My ankle is only a little strained and will be all right in a week or so. Anyhow, the skis were not broken. Out of my window, I can see Occom Pond, where the College gathers en masse to skate. It’s a small pond to serve such a large group: six games of hockey going on all at once in approximately the same place; Mephistophelian figures clad in green long underwear cutting through the crowd; and local youths playing headlong games of tag. It was too dangerous, so I took up skiing.”
With all our help, 2021 will be a year of blessings, hope, and peace!
—Jean M. Francis, 2205 Boston Road O-139, Wilbraham MA 01095; jmfcarmel@charter.net
I had the pleasure of receiving an email from a gentleman from the class of ’82, Stuart Washington. And now I can add a gentleman from the class of ’82 to my very dear class of ’38. It was totally unexpected, and I have not had the pleasure of meeting him. But he took the time to tell me he valued “elders” and so enjoyed hearing of those days at Dartmouth so many years ago. He made my day, to say the least. The past is all I have to write about now; my class is not as large as it was years ago, though their memories are now my memories and I hang on to them with all my strength. We have so many things to be thankful for in this world—we need to remember just how lucky we are to live where we live. It’s not perfect by any means, and as time goes by we need to remember what is important and what is really small potatoes. Bottom line: Treat people with respect and kindness and your rewards will come back to you tenfold.
From a freshman letter: “I’m writing this from the hospital—Dick’s House—where I will be taking a little rest for a day or two. Now, Mother, don’t say you expected this all along. It wasn’t the skis’ fault. I had a little trouble making them agree on the same direction while skiing on Velvet Rocks and, as a result, I found myself upside down in a hemlock grove. My ankle is only a little strained and will be all right in a week or so. Anyhow, the skis were not broken. Out of my window, I can see Occom Pond, where the College gathers en masse to skate. It’s a small pond to serve such a large group: six games of hockey going on all at once in approximately the same place; Mephistophelian figures clad in green long underwear cutting through the crowd; and local youths playing headlong games of tag. It was too dangerous, so I took up skiing.”
With all our help, 2021 will be a year of blessings, hope, and peace!
—Jean M. Francis, 2205 Boston Road O-139, Wilbraham MA 01095; jmfcarmel@charter.net