Ivy League football on television in Florida? It’s a rarity! But it happened on November 13. Members of the Vero Beach, Florida, Dartmouth and Brown clubs were invited to view their schools tussle with the pigskin in a private room in a well-known local restaurant. It seemed like a capital idea and, indeed, would have been but for the failure of the host to provide the promised room. We were lumped together with the general public. The television was snowy and inaudible. The venue was crowded and noisy. A highly successful solution to the fiasco was provided by Joe and Eva Sardella to whose attractive oceanfront apartment we retreated. Joe provided an excellent lunch, a bottle of scotch (which the Sardellas do not drink) and some nostalgic photographs of the Big Green football team of the late 1940s.


Earlier, in October, we enjoyed dinner with Bob Mauk’s widow, Joan and the next day with Clift and Joan Whiteman. During a second Whiteman house-hunting trip the weather took an unfortunate trip to the arctic, leaving Joan wondering if “sunny Florida” really is. An excellent dinner including Bob and Joan McIlwain, the Chamberlains and the Whitemans helped to soothe the pain.


Nob Hovde, always active, teaches “challenged” youths to sail in Naples, Florida. Nob has, without really meaning to do so, acquired a quarter interest in a Caribbean island. While trying to flee snowed-in Vermont following a family-oriented Christmas trip, Nob yearns for “sunny Florida.”


Gordon and JoAnn Hood’s son Hub called nearly six months following Gordie’s death to report that his mother had passed away. So ended my close friendship of 63 years. Alas.


That sad event was followed by calls from Frank Harrington and Jim Birney, who, with Bobbie, had been planning a visit with JoAnn this winter.


—Nev Chamberlain, 1835 North Garden Grove Circle, Vero Beach, FL 32962; (772) 569-2893; ranevero03@aol.com