In contemplating this column I was quite dissatisfied with the coverage that I am able to provide to honor those classmates who pass on. Since we are now limited to 350 words, obituaries are not possible and this is left to the class newsletter, which does a fine job. However, I still wanted to do more than a simple listing and let my imagination roam. Here’s what I came up with. Without contacting them, I arranged for the Barbary Coast Jazz Band to play a New Orleans-style funeral march to honor the list of 1956s that pass on. I also contacted the spirit of Samuel Occom and he agreed to lead the band up Main Street, Hanover, on these solemn occasions. Hark! I hear the band now—here it comes playing a brand-new tune created for this ceremony, “The 1956 Rag.” The band is followed by newly passed-on ’56s Cyrus W. Field and Michael Nussbaum. Then come the spirits of all those who have passed on during the year 2011, followed by all who have passed, period. All of us remaining stand to the side with heads bowed as the procession wends its way toward the Green and around three times. We all murmur the words to my newly created poetic limerick titled “1956 Requiem” as shown below. With my few remaining words I would like to pass on a story about Mike Nussbaum. Mike was caught in bed with a young lady about one week prior to graduation and he was tossed out of the College—he did not graduate with the class. I have many times wondered whether this ruined his life. I was happy to learn recently that it did not. He went on to become a successful lawyer with a long and distinguished career. 


“We honor all those who passed on,


They remain in our thoughts though


they’re gone;


A part of our heart,


They can never depart,


Sweet remembrance of days halcyon.”


—Joel D. Ash, P.O. Box 1733, Grantham, NH 03753; (603) 863-3360; joel@poeticlimericks.com