Memories, Musings & Meanders
the old daze reimagined…
the best of times…
- Anonymous Meander; 2. QUESTIONS; 3. Karl Radune Reflections.
1. Anonymous Meander–
“‘If I never hear another dorm & classroom bell, it’ll be too soon,’ said Pavlov’s dog.”
“I’ll take bells over a pre-dawn shift feeding cows silage & shoveling manure out, in a blizzard pushing 40 below. No matter how much I showered & scrubbed, the deep silage & manure smells followed me, even home on vacation.”
“Those were the days–though older alumni claimed we had it easy!”
“No one had it easy–or has it easy today. Blizzards are just as wild, as utterly wonderful, as indescribably bitter, depending on what you’re up to. The same goes for first snows, spring rain, & even sunny days, whenever you’re all in, giving your all–sometimes just to get up the hill! Your body can learn to love it, mind actively digesting & working ahead at more or less the same time, juggling classes, work, sports & other activities.”
“Talk about 24/7. We even had to sleep fast, there was so little time for it.”
“Back to racing bells, trying to stay one step ahead of the clocks–whether for buzzer beater, to finish an assignment, get somewhere on time, make the bus….”
“Roll me over in the clover, lay me down & do it again….Wasn’t that one of the bus hymns of choice?”
“On the way back from longer trips in the dark, less so on the short jumps between campuses (which Spanish speakers may pronounce short humps). That route was usually quieter, especially after time with the fairer sex.”
“What a strange phrase, fairer sex. Were they really? Maybe so. Certainly sexier for some of us, if not a superior class of being entirely, best admired from a distance. On the other hand, the girls were a major attraction to certain extra-curricular activities, including drama….”
“Even with activities (on stage & behind the gym), I still only got to know barely a handful of our female counterparts over a full four years.”
}Yes, but what a handful!”
[This is an example of one way a meander may go. Other musing directions may include: particular memories, impressions, reflections, realizations, revised perspectives, apologies, tributes…. Send yours c/o Bodlibrary2020@gmail.com.
~~~2. QUESTIONS OF MEMORY:
i. Does anybody remember Hal Holbrook trying out an early version of his long-running “Evening with Mark Twain” at the Northfield Auditorium? (Or is this a false memory?)
ii. What was the name of the building used as emergency overflow infirmary (a large hall with end-to-end beds) for the great flu epidemic? And when was that (’57 or ’58)? And wasn’t the senior “Cloud” somehow attached to it?
[Please send ANSWERS &/or OTHER QUESTIONS c/o bodlibrary2020@gmail.com with NMH-Musings in subject line.]
~~~3. KARL RADUNE REFLECTIONS–
Hi! I’ve reconstructed some of my past and recent connections with classmates here…[with] some doing to get dates approximately correct.
Early adventures & friendships
Albie Booth – longtime friend. Backpack trips in the White Mountains at the end of three summers while at NMH. Bruce Bowers and Will Holton joined us for two trips. Albie setup a canoe trip in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada the first summer after freshman year in college. Six of us went, including Bart Dawson – an engineering classmate and later roommate at Cornell. The summer after our third year in college, Albie hitchhiked across Canada alone on the then-new trans-Canada highway. I had a summer job in Oakland, CA. My brother and I met up with Albie in Tacoma, WA, and we car-camped our way back across the northern US states.
Jack Hastings. Was a roommate at NMH and attended Cornell, as I did. After freshman year at NMH, Jack and my brother and I rode our bicycles from our homes in CT and MA to Mt Washington in New Hampshire and back, a two-week adventure. Just before we reached our goal, Jack fell going down a hill and broke his collarbone. His parents drove up to New Hampshire and brought him home. We have exchanged Christmas cards each year, but have not gotten together since Cornell.
Will Holton. I have remained in contact with Will continuously. He has lived his life with Mar-fan Syndrome, which affects the connective tissue. Abraham Lincoln is thought to have had it. In spite of that he has led an active life. About two years ago a heart valve was failing, which is one effect of the syndrome that his doctor was watching for. He was scheduled to receive a valve from a pig heart two summers ago. Marv Kelley and I drove to his senior living complex south of Boston and took him to lunch about three days before his surgery. The surgery went well, and he says he hasn’t felt as good in 10 years.
Late life adventures
Starting in 2005, Albie organized adventures in the North Maine Woods each summer for family, classmates, and friends. We had up to eight people on these trips. Three backpack trips in the 100-mile wilderness section of the Appalachian trail. Then six canoe trips on rivers. After that, three trips to groups of cabins on lakes in the North Maine Wilderness. The last trip organized by Albie was in 2016. By then Albie was experiencing back problems and some balance issues, and we all were becoming a bit decrepit. I have one artificial knee. Some classmates who joined us on some of the trips were Dave Clapp, Will Holton, Bill Thibault.
NMH Fund calling team
After taking on the class gift chair job from Marv Kelley in 2010, I had a group of classmate volunteers, who helped me with calls to classmates for the NMH fund, with calling packets provided by NMH Advancement. Frequent volunteers were: Albie Booth, Dave Clapp, Curt Clifford, Marv Kelley, John Gregorian, Bob Wilson, Dave White, Malcolm Zickler, Phil Allen.
Lunch get-togethers
In 2015 Marv Kelley started organizing lunch get-togethers once every four months or so for a few of us who lived near his home in Greenfield, MA. First it was only Dave White, Marvin and me. Over time others came: John Gregorian, Bob Macomber, Dave Clapp, Bob Kidder. Doug Barrett was ready to come to the next gathering, when the corona-virus put an end to meetings at restaurants.
60th reunion committee
Last fall, a series of monthly teleconference meetings was scheduled by a Reunion Advisory Committee member (RAC) of the Alumni Council – an alumni volunteer. A number of classmates were invited, based on an old volunteer list. Doug Barrett, Bob Wilson and I faithfully called in, but not many others did. The meetings fell apart around January, assisted by the growth of the pandemic, and eventual postponement of reunion. Doug, Bob, and I spent a bit of time on the phone and with email, updating each other and exchanging info on our classmates.
Hope this is not too much info. Take care.–Karl
[No, not too much at all, but an example of what a website gladly makes space for! It’s a sure bet this will inspire more in kind from others…. If & when pages get too full & too long, older individual entries can be shrunk to opening lines with a clickable “READ MORE” function.]