Here in the Shenandoah Valley during this holiday week we are seeing temperatures in the high 60s and no snow is forecast for at least the next few weeks; crazy weather. We hope Hanover has snow for Winter Carnival.

Ralph Alan Cohen ’67 sent me a photo of Chuck Morey with him in New York City at the National Theater Conference in December. Maybe Allen can include it in the next newsletter.

Further information from Homecoming in October is confirmation of our class project presented by Dimitri Gerakaris during that weekend. We have granted $5,000 to the Outdoor Leadership Experience, which is described by the group’s leader as a mentoring program for fifth- through 12th-graders from Canaan, New Hampshire, to foster independence, leadership, teamwork, communication and appreciation of nature through group-based outdoor activities such as canoeing, rock climbing and hiking. Participating students are generally from a lower socio-economic background, often eligible for free or reduced-cost lunch.

Scarsdale, New York, mayor Jon Mark serenaded the village board with a Tom Chapin song celebrating libraries in an effort to sway the board to accept a plan to renovate and update the Scarsdale Library. It appears his performance was well received.

Those of us attending Homecoming watched Mark Bankoff take many photos of the event. As a result of his photographic skills he was accepted as a new exhibiting member of the Rockport (Massachusetts) Art Association and invited to display some of his work at an exhibit in December. You can see his photography at http://markbankoff.smugmug.com.

Both John “Tex” Talmadge and Bruce Hamilton have reached into their memory banks and brought forth wonderful stories of their freshman attempts to join the football team. Each entertained listserv readers with brief but detailed recollections of their early days on campus struggling to gain a spot on a football team that would go undefeated that year. Tex further commented on his trek from a good performance at a Texas high school to finding himself among “people who kept me in a constant state of gracious discomfort. Wherever we are in life, someone will be smarter, faster, stronger, more self-aware, more present in the moment, more capable and developed as a person.” Tex then added something applicable to one who came from Wolf Point High School in Montana: “Dartmouth in those years was looking to expand the demographic, so to speak, and a few of us from Texas were admitted despite our general lack of distinction when compared to most of our classmates. So it goes. Dartmouth is a metaphor for life itself.”

These are the kinds of 50-year-old memories we need to mention in this column and for Allen Denison to detail in the newsletter. Please submit yours to us.

Sadly this will be the first issue of Class Notes that may not include a report from the class of 1935, as its secretary, Ed Gerson ’35, passed away in October. Ed and his comments will be missed.

—Steve Larson, 465 Miller Road; Winchester, VA 22602; (360) 770-4388; wheat69@outlook.com