Here are a couple of my seasonal verses for this fall and the coming winter-

An autumn bee is needling If I were born a muskox
Each frosted blossom Or perhaps a polar bear,
To see if any one I could handle winter better
Is playing possum. And have a lot more hair.

10/13/11 – Gerald "Jerry" Schnitzer has published a great memoir of his first 13 years of life as a kid growing up in Brooklyn, NY – "My Floating Grandmother". He sent me a copy, and some of the episodes had me rolling on the floor with howls of laughter. You may have seen his book listed in the Nov/Dec D.A.M

Jerry is a retired film director and screen writer. We had a series of email exchanges from which I quote -
" My wife, Ellen, and I live in Laguna Woods, formerly known as
Leisure World, aka Seizure World. "We got horses, we got golf courses,
we got swimming pools" – What we ain't got --- is real knees! One of mine
is titanium. I'm betting my real one will hang around for its 95th birthday
next March. And with luck, the sequel to "Floater" will be in Ebooks."

"Thanks Walker for all news which is coming a bit garbled, thanks to an infected router! That's what the gremlins tell me. You beat me on the robotics; I have only one fake knee and two eye lenses. The only other thing fake around here is the way I play guitar.

I hope by now my server (sounds medieval) will bring joy to the world,
Say hello to Bill and Ned. Best wishes, Jerry"

A pertinent quote from Jerry's memoir –

"One afternoon, fifteen-year-old ‘Fatso' Mendel Rothenberg, the biggest blowhard artist in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, corrals a newcomer" and expounds about Jerry's family – ‘I almost fahgot to tellya about Sarah – dat's Jerry's grandma – she's somethin'. She's got a good build like her daughter. Dey even look like sisters comin' down the street. And all da horny guys in Brownsville are in heat because dey tink her hubby's too busy plugging corks in his wine bottles. But she's not puttin' out for no one. Pretty stuck up for a granma. I guess.They even chase her down at Coney Island in da summa. She hops the El to Coney an' swims from Brighton Beach to Steeplechase Pier. And when she comes out of the water and walks up da beach with them boobs bouncin', you gotta see da ole geezers in their bathing suits, flexin' their muscles, making like da guy in da body magazines – ya know, the one holdin' up the woild on his shoulders?'

"You mean Charles Atlas?"
"Yeah, dat's tha guy. Charley Atlast. You know what? My ole lady says she'd jump in da ocean too if she lived in dat family."
"Wow, all the way to Steeplechase? Jerry's grandma….must be a good swimmer."
"Ahh. She can't swim. She floats… on her back."
"I guess Sarah used a rubber tube when she went out, huh?"
"Naah. She don't need one. She's got a great pair of hootenannies."

9/20/11 –From Marian Weinberg –"   Dear Ike: I am in rehab, recovering from a remarkable hip replacement surgery. It was done a wk ago, and I am walking very well with a walker. I get lots of PT and OT daily, and my computer ability to send email is giving me difficulty. I am working from an old laptop and the connection here is not good. Soooo there may be a delay of a week or so getting the DRUM on the website..
Love and keep well, Marian"

It does seem that hip replacements in our generation are getting to be as common as tonsillectomies were when we were young.

 

9/22/11 – Ed.- I utilized yesterday's nice weather by going up to Post Mills, VT airport for a magical hot air balloon ride. It was an interesting experience to see them get the balloon out of a big bag and inflate it with a big propane torch. Got aboard the basket at 5:45PM with the pilot Brian and four women on tour from England, went up to about 6000 feet over hills covered with incipient fall color and drifted very slowly north to East Corinth, VT then down, skimming tree tops, to a miraculous landing on a small turnout on route 25 at 7:00PM. We were up for 1-1/4 hours, and by the time I got home it was 8:30 PM. I seldom speak of my age since people tend to view old folks as vulnerable rather than venerable and valuable but I asked my pilot how old a customer he had levitated, remarking that I was 92. I set his record for males, but he had gone to a retirement home, offered a free ride to anyone 100 or over and took up a lady in her early hundreds.

9/23/11 – Ned Jacoby and I attended the dinner at the Class Officers' weekend representing the most senior class present. Hal Ripley,'29 was listed but not there. He died next day at age 104.

9/25/11 - Ned Jacoby has a great article in Air Classics magazine, Volume 47 #10, recounting his ferrying of a P-38 fighter plane from the US to Scotland during WW II in winter with stops at Presque Isle, ME, Goose Bay, Labrador, Greenland and Iceland. It also included a section on Ned's U.S. Army Air Force history that is awesome. As a ferry pilot he flew just about every type of plane all over the world. Here are a couple of sample quotes:

"In Fall 1943 with nine other ATC c-87 crews and – based at Tezpur in India's Assam valley – I spent a half-year in India and China as support for Gen. Wolfe's B-29 Project Matterhorn flying The Hump with supplies to Chengdu (Hsinching), Kunming, Chanyi, Yunnanyl."
"Our Wings last mission – to Akita (Tsuchizakiminato) in farthest northeast Honshu - was flown on the last night of the war and totalled 3800 mi – the longest bombing mission of WWII. There we destroyed Japan's last oil refinery and storage facility more than 2 hours after the official armistice! Several books have been written about that incredible last night of the war when over a thousand B-29s were over Japan."

From Carol Davenport via Marian – "Karl F. Bruch died last Tuesday, Sept. 27, at the Breckinridge Retirement Community , Willoughby, Ohio, where he and Ginny were living. I believe he was perhaps the last of the 16 men from University School, Cleveland who entered Dartmouth together in 1936 . He served as Class President in recent years."

Editor's note: Ned Jacoby was also a member of that group.

10/13/11 – Having learned that Louis Rose was in Hospice, I called him. He sounded quite cheerful. Hospice is a wonderful organization.

10/19/11 - I was delighted to receive some news from another of our '40 widows –

Charlotte C. Acer (Oscar W.) - " Came to Buffalo, NY in 1946 after Oscar's MBA at Dartmouth (a gorgeous 9 month honeymoon in Hanover in Wigwam Circle) and after working at Harrison & Abramovitz architects after they built Rockefeller Center and were starting the UN. We enjoyed the F.L.Wright Building (We have 5) and the Buffalo Philharmonic in Kleinhaus Music Hall by Saarinen – and the Buffalo Club with 2 U.S. Presidents as members and shared the cultural life with Ned Riorden and Lukus Foss (now we have Rene Fleming)– Studied Jung in Küsnacht , Switz. Went to Manhattan 2-3 times a year (Have 7 of 8 grandchildren living there) When Oscar died in2001, I continued in earnest my writings and studies on Inner City Disasters. Have a website with my daughter and we work or SKYPE, but I'll be moving in the spring. Was too busy, at 88, to go to Reunion." Address: c/o Harriss, 35 Maher Ave, Greenwich, CT 06830.

 

10/24/11 – From "Bud" Hewitt – " Now 6-1/2 years since my Louise passed on at 91, and here I am, in 1st quarter of my 93rd, self-sufficient within the spacious lovely home she created since we moved here in 1977. I am not a social person craving group contact so content myself with the NEW YORK TIMES after late rising at 8:30, once I have fed 3 elderly cats 11,10 and 9. I keep track of the outside world via evening TV on CNN, MSNBC for too many hours, and occasionally check out the conservative pundits of Fox News to contrast their views with my progressive liberal viewpoint. I get around with a cane for balance to avoid a disabling fall such as my wife had suffered. I only drive locally, during daytime, and hit the local supermarket every six days for the frozen dinner meals which sustain me. Have not been to a restaurant in quite a few years. Have a house cleaning couple in every three weeks to clean up after the felines have done the usual etc. Check in with police every morning before 11 under a survival plan...and local organizations keep in touch with me, partly for my past generosity. My mutual bond funds provide a generous monthly income. The list you sent me (of surviving ‘40's) I post demises to my 1940 AEGIS. I did not know Ed Schecter, our prior youngest, had passed. Karl Bruch is a big loss. Down to 70! What was our 1940 peak? (615 I believe - ed.)

Lloyd Blanchard and Bud Hewitt are 2 of 18 Andover ‘36 survivors. THE INDIAN DRUM IS SO VERY WELCOME AND INFORMATIVE. Wish I had known you personally in the old days!

10/28 and 29 – We had a couple of early snowstorms in New England with up to 32" in some spots south of us . We escaped the worst of them up here in Hanover, but I had 10 inches in the yard after the 2 nd one. Dartmouth football played Harvard in a night game on the 29 th . It was grim weather and a grim score – Harvard 41, Dartmouth 10.

11/1/11 – Going to meet the Jacobys at an eatery up in Lyme this noon. Ned and Bee are headed for Nova Scotia again soon to visit her relatives.  

11/9/11 – From Joe Huber - " It was good to hear from you and hear the latest developments. So far I seem to be holding up but we have had a problem recently. Priscilla had a fall while walking and broke her shoulder. The first remedy was to keep the arm in a sling and wait for the healing. After about 3 weeks it was decided that an operation was needed. The arm is still in a sling and tomorrow we go see the doctor to learn how we are progressing. In the meantime I keep busy with the nursing and household duties. My cooking is not great but satisfactory. Basic stuff.

"Our normal return to Hingham for Christmas is still on the docket but time will tell whether or not we will be able to do that. Meanwhile having Seph and family just around the corner is really great. We get to see them and the two little ones (now two and four) just about every day which really adds a lot to life. Our next event is Thanksgiving when my family is gathering here for our annual reunion."  

Here I am with less than four pages of this DRUM. Unless a flood of news comes in I am going to have to fill in with my own scribblings. For one thing, as one of that majority of ‘40's who were born in 1918 and celebrate 2011 as their 93 rd year, I offer the following:

  Several days ago I looked skyward and noticed 12 turkey buzzards (vultures) circling right overhead. I found this somewhat unnerving, but I steadied myself and recalled a verse I wrote in 2001:

 

FOURSCORE AND THREE

How can it be
That somehow I've turned eighty-three?
Up in a tree
Some buzzards fix their eyes on me,

But not with glee -
There's little meat on what they see.
And so, my friends, let's watch our weight.
Those extra pounds are buzzard bait
11/18/11

 

cathartes aura

 

Then, to boost my spirits, I sat down and wrote the following for my 93 rd :

 

FOURSCORE AND THIRTEEN

Those birds that had their eyes on me,
Ten years ago at eighty-three,
Have starved and fallen from their tree.
Their stomachs simply couldn't wait
For me to turn to buzzard bait. 11/18/11

 

Seems to me that newspaper people call this "boiler plate", stuff used to fill space.
To avoid such please take pen in hand and write me something interesting about your life in the Golden Years.

Season's Greetings, Ike