People: Eric Musa advises that Tracy Mackle is doing well following heart surgery. Don Freud says that Wally Rudd is in Norwalk Hospital and is seeing only very close friends. Guest and New Canaan High School principal Bernie Josephberg introduced more guests from what he proclaimed to be the finest high school athletic program in CT: coaches and cheerleaders and captains and co-captains of our outstanding New Canaan teams of the fall season. It was a truly outstanding group of young people and their mentors.
Activities: Bowling, bridge, paddle, racquetball and the Trailblazers all prosper to various degrees. Phil Toll may have a new restaurant for 4-F's in January, unless it closes first.
Couth: Ron Seger outlined early 2001 events and reminded us to have our wives post the full year schedule which we have received. He also reported that the new "reservation plus cash" policy was being well received and should further enhance the already excellent Couth program.
Other News: Don Hunziker highlighted December events of WWII: Pearl Harbor and the Battle of the Bulge. The SMC clothing exchange has presented Gordon Nelson with a new and elegant green jacket, large. Unfortunately, he would prefer to get back his tired old one, extra large.
Jester: Joe Sweet described a police presentation of a safety award which unearthed at least four crimes of varying severity.
Speaker: VP Bob Witt introduced our own John Johansen, jazz aficionado and authority on Glenn Miller, an American patriot. By one definition a patriot pledges his honor, his fortune and his life to his country; Major Miller did all three. John described it, with slides and music from his collection. He started exactly 56 years ago when Major Miller's plane was lost between London and Paris. John and others theorize that an RAF bomber group, returning from an aborted mission, jettisoned its bombs over the English Channel, as was then the custom. The Miller plane became its inadvertent target. Waiting to receive Major Miller at Orly that day in 1944 was Lt. Cmdr. Bill Stack, now SMC member Bill Stack, who then took the podium to tell us about it.
John then returned to the beginnings, with music interspersed. "Moonlight Serenade" at the Glen Island Casino in 1939. The Make-Believe Ballroom with "Chattanooga Choo Choo". Next, building the Army Air Corps Band at Yale in 1943; transforming marching music with "The St. Louis Blues March" ; the military themes such as "American Patrol". Then the year in London: 528 radio concerts and countless personal appearances; guest Bing Crosby singing "Long Ago and Far Away"; and two weeks before the end, the band and Dinah Shore recording "Sometimes I Wonder Why I Spend Each Lonely Hour" at Abbey Road Studios.
The Glenn Miller era was a transforming time for almost every Senior Man, whether then in uniform or not, and John's skillful presentation brought it all back. Throughout, this audience looked straight ahead - not at the screen but beyond it - to the long ago and far away. And there was even some surreptitious wiping of eyes, including this observer's.
Peter Schurman -Assistant Secretary