August and it is time to engage Dick Barr once again in our annual summer session on the baseball season. We both feel that the way Brooklyn is playing they will win more than 100 games. Campy is a shoe in for MVP. They will probably play the Yanks again who could win 100 also. With Erskine on the mound, Gil and the Duke, 1953 could be the next year we’ve all been waiting for! 


We had a nice long phone call and e-mails recently with John LeFever. He is primarily retired but still does a few acting and radio spots in and around Rhinebeck, New York, and some writing. (He really liked Al Uris’ short story.) John was in the Army in Germany about the same time as Jud Hale but drove a truck instead of a tank. He was also in an acting troupe. John later drove an 18-wheeler for eight years coast-to-coast, which also provided good raw material for his writing plus adding to our reliving the good ol’ days.


Roger Dolliver, also retired now, called in from their cabin near Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, where he and Martha and family spend summers away from the west Texas heat in San Angelo. Roger remains active in Kiwanis and other community service organizations, He is really looking forward to attending the Asheville, North Carolina, mini in September 2014—and we hope many others of you are too. 


We started with baseball, but by the time you read this, football will be well underway and we will have had the Yale game at Homecoming. We’ve checked frequently with Doug Melville, our lead fan and prognosticator. His fearless forecast is that this will be a really good year for the Big Green. You’ll have a better idea of his crystal ball as you read this now, the season half over. Go Big Green!


Sadly we report the passing of Lew Weintraub. Three years ago Lew was paralyzed after back surgery but was courageously able to resume his medical practice until he was hospitalized shortly before his death. He never lost his cheerful attitude amid these setbacks. 


—Ken Lundstrom, 1101 Exchange Place, #1106, Durham, NC 27713; (919) 206-4639; kenlundstrom@yahoo.com