There is a change for the mini this fall: It was October 29 and is now Friday, September 30, to Sunday, October 2, with a game against Penn October 1. This and those minis that follow can be a “meaningful mini for many” (do you like that alliteration?) as our next major reunion, the 75th, is not until 2025. So get your ducks in a row and come on up! Prez Bob Kirby (and Brownlee) are booked for a tour to northwest Australia for a full solar eclipse April 20, 2023. (There will also be a full solar eclipse April 8, 2024, crossing Mexico and the United States from Texas to Maine. They plan to be in Seaside Mazatlian, Mexico, with 20 friends. Anyone considering joining them, contact Bob.) Tommy (spouse of Chuck Solberg) says she has 27 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren! Wow, can anyone break that record? I expect “Carp” and Terri would give her a run for the money! Joe Medlicott writes of his “classic downsized move,” emptying Piedmont House to sell, along with his car—vast relief. His Osher memory class is going well. Stephanie “Toots” Reininger is taking a virtual Osher course on “How to deal with difficult people,” of which Joe says he is not one. He closes with, “Happy spring.” Nob Hovde in his new digs–Wentworth Senior Living, 346 Pleasant St., Portsmouth, NH 03801—would welcome an email from any and all at nobhovde@gmail.com. You can’t keep a good (drummer) man down: Lee “Sak” Sarokin just finished writing and producing (at 93) his 13th play and drums in a newly formed 13-piece band (with a lady singer yet) featuring Ricardo Rodriguez. Sak says, “A new piano player just moved in and we plan to swing!” My doctor, who is retiring back to Hawaii, remembers well our own Dr. Cal Sia, who enjoyed a very outstanding reputation on the islands and beyond. Victoria Hicks (daughter of roommate and best pal Ort ’49), our contact in the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, keeps us abreast of 1950-sponsored events and lectures, such as the recent April Hanover Inn event featuring ambassador Bisa Williams, acting deputy assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs.

Once again I end this column with the demise of three classmates: Robert B. Shnayerson, Richard W. Griffith Jr., and John H. Weber.

—Tom “Smiley” Ruggles, 8-5 Concord Greene, Concord, MA 01742; (978) 369-5879; smileytmr@aol.com