During the January 27-29 weekend the class held a mini-reunion in New York City. This began with a class meeting at the Yale (Dartmouth) Club attended by Tom Harper and Tom Rosenwald (co-presidents), Jack Billhardt (vice president), Bob Faulkner (treasurer), Joel Ash (secretary), Flint Ranney (newsletter editor), Buddy Schattman (scholarship chairman), Jack Tamagni, Harold Gordon, Doug Keare, Bert Whittemore, Leo McKenna, Doug Bleiler, Alan Friedman, George Yeager and Dutch Rosenberger. Some wives also sat in—Sandy Harper, Marsha Ash, Joan Gordon and Diane Friedman. A cocktail hour and then buffet dinner followed. The next day a large group visited the 9/11 memorial site at Ground Zero and met for lunch at the Blue Planet Grill. That evening George Yeager hosted a terrific cocktail party at his apartment in midtown and this was followed by a Chinese dinner out. The weekend’s events concluded on Sunday morning with a fabulous brunch hosted by Joan and Harold Gordon.


Hark! I hear the Barbary Coast Jazz Band and see Samuel Occom dressed in green buckskins as he leads the procession toward the Green. The band this time is followed by newly passed-on ’56s Roger A. Tolins and Robert H. Schuh.


I have just enough space to tell you about an unusual event in the life of our esteemed newsletter editor. Residents and visitors to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, thanks to the generosity and effort by Flint Ranney, are experiencing a sound unheard at the island for quite a few years. Flint presented an eight-inch, three-tone brass steam whistle to the local steamship authority for use on the Martha’s Vineyard ferry. He managed to find a whistle similar to one that was retired in 1955, and everyone was delighted to have a whistle like the one used in Nantucket, Massachusetts. This story inspired me to write a poetic limerick titled “Our Man Flint.”


A man from Nantucket—green tint,


His nautical bent gives one hint;


With whistle of steam,


Sending news we esteem,


Three cheers for our classmate named 


Flint.


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