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the beaker—who knows where—got a fingernick that progressed to blood poisoning, andhad to stay home, unable to take dear AlisonStrieder to the dance. Other lasting memorieswere Charlie and Dave Hoffman’s cut-downMerc; all the Model As we had, like a fad;Eliot Putnam’s annual ‘put-her-on-a-pedestal’speech to seniors (isn’t that the old days?)and his annual Opening Day reading of ‘Caseyat the Bat’; our post-grad party at GeorgeWaterman’s in Rhode Island, where I wasintroduced to his stump-lifter. But what Iprobably remember most is ‘The Path,’ ormore accurately, the steps. Glad to see thatthe Castle’s renovations will save it!”“I’ve been thinking about late one night inour sophomore year when short-term boarderBob Bach’s mattress managed to slide outof the Castle’s third-floor long-dorm window,”recalls Newell Flather. “It landed right nextto where [master] David Horton was parkinghis car. Is it funny or sad that I am using limitedmemory storage to save such a thought? Whatwas funny was the way Mr. Horton handled thesituation. He raced to the third floor, as onlyhe could, peered into the room, and declaredin a serio-comic voice, ‘Well it couldn’t havebeen these boys. Like the angels they are,they are all sleeping!’ We started laughing;he started laughing; end of story. No circles,no detentions, nothing.”Dev Barker remembers: “In a football gameat Belmont Hill in our Fourth or Fifth Class year,my chin hit the ground when I was tackled. Outpopped a central lower tooth which I pickedup and headed for the sideline to give to myfather. He apparently found a phone and calledthe dentist, and when the game was over, wesped into Boston. The tooth was put in placeand lasted at least 15 years. My first, andthus far only, bridge replaced it.”“We continue to bounce from Chatham toNaples,” reports John Raye. “We’ve had afantastic winter so far here in the south, withmost days in the low 80s! So happy to avoidthe icy/snowy winters which are treacherousfor us. Our ’big event’ this year was Paula’s 70thbirthday. We took the whole family (15 of us)to the Beaches Resort in the Turks and Caicosto celebrate. It was the most fantastic familyholiday ever. Fantastic spot and we recommendit highly. Getting the whole family together isone of our greatest pleasures, and seeing allthe grandchildren interact and really loveeach other is the best!”Suggests Whiz Wheeler, “Why not reportthat certain members of the Class of ’56 haverecently spent more time hammering out aplaque text than we did deciding to build ThePath in 1956? Can you imagine if we had thewhole class involved in the wording? Twofactors were at play: we are a lot older nowand we didn’t have Bea [Sanders] then.”“Just learned I passed the board certificationexam in palliative care medicine. It’s good for10 years, so I guess it’s good for a lifetime,”writes Bob Bach. “Looking back, the one thingthat has always stayed with me is Eliot Putnam’semphasis on our being very privilegedand the need to give back to society. This morningI thought of Mr. Putnam starting the daymany years ago when he read Kipling’s ‘If’ likenobody else. On the lighter side, I think thatNewell [Flather] was the chief instigator inmy mattress being thrown out of the castlewindow. One more thing—I will never forgetthe courage of Whizzer [Wheeler] andJohnny Raye.”This from George Waterman: “How aboutthe time, after evening study hall, as we weresaying goodnight to Mr. Putnam in his den aswas the custom? Taking me by the ear—he wasquite good at that—he said, ‘I want to see youafter everyone else has left.’ Then he said, ‘Wehave about had it with you.’ It seemed harsh,as I am certain I had only broken about 10 rulesthat day. Anyway, his good heart and patienceprevailed and I made it to graduation.”The proud entrepreneur of S. Fernald’s CountryStore, Kit Hayden, reports that “as the winterwears on, it becomes increasingly evident, asany eighth grader should know, that it is almostimpossible to achieve a profit through a smallbusiness in Maine. But that’s okay; the storeadds ambiance for the locals, and where elseis one to spend his money, frugally accruedover the years? Give it to some school?”(For Kit’s current view on education, visit to:http://knox.villagesoup.com/blog/blogpost/dumb-and-dumber-not-really/379065).“One of my enduring memories of life atNobles (there are many others, of course) isbittersweet,” recalls Tim Leland. “It involveda bitter event and a sweet result. The bitterpart occurred during a hockey game againstMiddlesex on Motley’s Pond. Hockey was asport I loved, but I was skinny and light, easyto knock around as a defenseman on theopposing team discovered early in the secondperiod when he checked me into the boardswith a resounding smack. (Collisions withJohn Felton often had the same effect in ourpractices.) I was a boarder at the time and wokethe next morning with a terrible, scarlet-bluehematoma on my hip that sent me limpingto the infirmary, where I stayed for the nextweek, feeling very sorry for myself. But everynight I was there, I received a visit from theman we all idolized. Mr. Putnam would suddenlyappear at my bedside, his blue eyesglinting behind his wire-framed glasses. ‘Hello,old boy,’ he’d say in that gravelly voice of his,putting his hand on my shoulder. ‘How areyou feeling, sport?’ That was the sweet part,and I’ve never forgotten it.”Babs and Dave Carroll ’56Dave Carroll writes, “After 14 months in ournew house in Dexter, Mich., Babs and I havedecided that we’re tired of knocking ourselvesout with hard labor, costly improvements andunending fix-up. We’re planning to move a miledown the road to a brand-new senior livingcommunity. It’s beautiful, well built and highlyrated. The biggest draw: no maintenance. We’veput our money down and plan to move inaround late May. Meanwhile, we’re heavilyinto downsizing, a big job in itself.We celebrated our second wedding anniversaryon Feb. 5, and haven’t regretted one second ofour second chance together. In spite of thework, we’re having the most fun we’ve everhad. Love to you and all our classmates.”“My turn,” sez Rocky Whitman. “After obtainingmy heavily redacted surveillance files from theFBI under the Freedom of Information Act in1974, I discovered that, in their zeal to keepan eagle eye on this dangerous Nobles grad,the feds made inquiries even at my old school.To my everlasting delight, on page 4 wasNobles’ formal reply, to wit: ‘He was generallyconsidered to be a good student and a goodSpring 2011 l the NobLES Bulletin l 41