Class Note 1968
Doing good while having fun is a ’68 tradition.
In February master puppeteer Dan Butterworth will return via small plane to an Inuit community in Cambridge Bay, on a far north island in Nunavut, Canada, where he’s setting up a permanent puppetry program.
Dan is known for his grand sets and his exquisitely moving marionettes (and his amazing shadow puppets). The kids respond with imagination and enthusiasm as they create their own marionettes and tell their stories.
When he went to the Arctic some years ago, he was given a welcoming feast—this included a big fish eyeball on his plate. Other culinary treats are muktuk, caribou, the warm blood of the ptarmigan. On one hunt he was pulled on a sled and shot up suddenly into a riotous herd of caribou.
Bob Reich’s latest book (No. 18) is The Common Good, Bob’s recipe for a just society. Bob wants to end the unbridled pursuit of power and profit and see leadership as trusteeship. Like many classmates Bob believes we’d be well served by two years of mandatory service.
A cello concerto inspired by Dartmouth’s Orozco murals and commissioned by Roger Anderson will premiere May 25 in Hanover in a collaboration between the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra and the nationally renowned classical radio show, From The Top. The class committee will meet that morning and, as always, all classmates are welcome.
“Ending loneliness as one enters the eighth decade is a wonderful experience,” writes Monroe Denton. Two years ago Monroe realized he had outlived his parents and his sister. His sister had been at his 60th birthday in Venice; his 65th was in Istanbul. And for his 70th birthday, friends from Turkey came to Puebla, Mexico, and they were the first to meet someone special Monroe was getting to know. “Those destination birthdays were celebrations of my life. They were the focus that I had expected at one time to come from winning prizes. I realized the love of those friends was the prize. There is so much more to see, to read, and I hope to stage and enjoy, sharing with a partner and with a wonderful circle of friends.”
Jon Agronsky has just finished a 6,000-word, R-rated short story about a young man who shoots his brother following an extramarital affair. Jon also penned My Hollywood Adventure by Bonny the Shih Tzu, as Barked to Jonathan Agronsky (Buddha Dog Books), written from the point of view of a canine movie star. Eric Hatch’s new book of “concerned photography” features Eric’s superb portraits along with life stories of 50 individuals who are drug addicts. You can preview the book at http://facesofaddiction.net.
The next class committee meeting is February 16 at 11 a.m. at the Cambridge Ale House, 357 Salmon Brook St., Granby, CT. Mark Waterhouse will host. It’ll be a mini-reunion. All classmates are invited to join in person or via Zoom.
—Dick Olson, 1021 Nottingham Road, Grosse Pointe Park, MI 48230; rwolson68@gmail.com
