A Relic from the Past

So this one has got to make my top-ten list for great email stories... just in the way the issue is phrased, if nothing else. The key player? Henry Neale '94, with whom I did my student-teaching up at Mooresville High School long ago. Henry, did you lose something on Spring Break once upon a time?! Hopefully we can get it back for you. Stay tuned.

From: Michelle and Rick Shiver
Sent: Monday, August 30, 2010 1:17 PM
To: Wagner, Peter
Subject: Henry W Neale Jr.


Hi,


I'm wondering if you have any alumni information on a Henry W. Neale Jr., birthday 9/14/70, student number 0156365 having attended Davidson College in '89-'99? I live in South Florida and several months ago fished his student school ID out of my backyard canal. Before I discard it, I wanted to make sure he was not in the same place I found his ID.


Thank you for your help,
Mrs. Shiver

OFF the Road

I anticipated that by this hour we'd be well down the road from the Holman/MacGarvey home... but as we climbed in the Nissan to depart this morning we found that the starter in the vehicle had gone bad. So it looks like we might be in Dorset for one more night while the car is fixed. As I write, John is out cold on the hammock -- the sound of the rain surely did him in -- and Dodger is laying quietly on the deck next to him. I'm inside with a cool breeze while I try to plow through some of the email that's been accumulating over the past two weeks.

And the photos I've been hoping to add to this blog? They're tied up on my phone... there isn't cell phone service so I can't upload them mobile-ly... and I can't seem to make my computer and my phone talk to one another. So that will have to wait. But for any of you following along, we've hit a bit of a snag in the itinerary.

On the Road

So John Syme '85, Dodger, and I started our 2010 Road Trip on Monday with lobster at Five Islands followed by a wonderful event in Portland, ME. After spending time with Nat May '95 -- the executive director of SPACE Gallery in Portland -- and then hitting Portland Head Light on the way out of state, we made it as far as Loudon, NH on Tuesday. Today's visits have included Elena Bell Wagner's alma mater (New England College) in Henniker, NH; a stop in Hanover, NH to chat with Kelly Sundberg Seaman '85 at Dartmouth College; and a wonderful night with Georgine and Steve Holman '78 at their beautiful home in Dorset, VT. Kelly is a writer for the Dartmouth communications operation, as well as a Class Secretary for Davidson's Class of 1985. Steve is a master craftsman in the world of contemporary furniture, and is highly skilled in restorations of pieces dating back to colonial times.

It's been such a treat already being on the road and meeting so many Davidson people, and I'm thankful that John thought of including me on this year's venture. It's a great combination of alumni events (along with Portland, we're doing Lancaster, PA this Friday night), scheduled interviews/meetings like the ones with Nat May and Steve Holman, and serendipitous and spontaneous drop-ins with volunteers like Kelly and -- fingers crossed -- Stephanie Moffett Hynds '84, who we hope to see on our way south tomorrow.

Now before I get to some gratuitous photo posting, please be sure you take some time to follow our trip a little more closely on John's blog, Daybook Davidson. Great stuff -- he's a professional. Please keep up with us, and be in touch!

Number One. Yes, Number One.

THANK YOU, Davidson alumni, for a remarkable year in supporting the college and the Annual Fund. Together we raised record-breaking dollars, received a record-breaking number of gifts, and... wait for it... we've made Davidson NUMBER ONE in the country in Annual Fund participation (this year, 61%). Think about that -- of all the colleges and universities in America large or small, no group of alumni supported alma mater in a more convincing way. Thank you, and congratulations!

Road Trip!

So today Elena, Shea, Gabriel, and I leave for Virginia Beach to see Colby's all-star team in their SE regional baseball tournament. We'll have a minimum of two games in the double-elimination format; at best we'll have four games and win 'em all by midday Saturday; at most we'll have five games stretching into Saturday evening. From there we head to Maine for a week and a half (Elena and the boys will be there longer). On Monday, August 2, John Syme and I kick off our Road Trip 2010 with an event on Casco Bay in Portland... and then we take a week or so to drive back to Davidson, visiting alumni and colleagues along the way and doing lots of writing and taking lots of photos. John put together a fun map tool for tracking the trip -- as of this moment he has just his first solo leg, going from Davidson up to Pittsfield, MA. You can follow us here:


View Road Trip 2010: The New England States in a larger map

It's going to be a crazy and fun few weeks. Be on the lookout for two guys and a dog in the Caliente!

The Kid Sells (2)

At an alumni directors' conference at the College of Wooster last week I had the pleasure of meeting Sara Dresser, a 2009 Wooster alumna and the daughter of Davidson alumna Mary Gilliam Dresser '78. Sara works in Alumni Relations at Wooster, and is clearly a Davidsonian at heart. She was good enough to send me some photos and information about her love affair with Davidson, and with one of our more recent and notable alumni.

Sara Dresser with Curry, her own personal #30. Please look at this photo and tell me that you would have guessed she's a Wooster grad who now works in their alumni office. Go ahead. Dare you.

She says:

"After growing up a Wildcat fan and more importantly a Davidson College enthusiast/fan/wannabe it was hard to explain to the average person what makes Davidson so special. No one really understood why I could be enamored with a school the size of a farm village. Then came Steph Curry. When Davidson made its magical run to the Elite Eight in Detroit, being from Michigan we had to go. So my parents (my mom is '78), myself, and my boyfriend all made the trip to watch Davidson play Wisconsin in the Sweet 16. What an experience. Normal Michiganders were on the Davidson band wagon. People came up to us and couldn't stop talking about how great Davidson is. My mom even made Charlotte Local News. After that weekend we decided we had to watch him play again. So when Davidson played Butler in the Bracketbuster, the four us made the trip to North Carolina to watch the 'Cats play again. When Steph announced he would go to the NBA the four of us were like, well, let's figure out when we can watch him again. We made the trip to NOLA, hung out with other alums, got a chance to meet him after the game - again, another unbelievable experience. We're in the process of planning our trip next year - different city, hopefully the same experience. Our plan is to watch him every year as long as we can. When Nate and I decided to get a dog, the only name we could actually agree on was Curry. So people assume we named him after the spice and when I inform them who his is actually named after, we tend to get funny looks."

Nate is also a Wooster alumnus and a big Ohio State guy -- you know the athletic-fan baggage that must come with that territory -- and a converted Wildcat. Here he is with Sara in New Orleans this past winter, sporting his Davidson game hat.

Here's our boy after the game in NOLA signing a fan's shirt while another unidentified Davidson person looks on. Steph was so gracious with Davidson folks all through his stellar rookie year.

The Kid Sells

From a member of the Davidson family in San Francisco:

"So at this weekend's annual art festival in Menlo Park the Warriors organization had a booth promoting tickets for the upcoming season. Any idea who their big drawing card is? :)"

Congratulations, Boys!

So yes, this all happened while I was in Ohio this weekend… I missed the whole thing, including (from what I hear) the most unbelievable individual performance that my son has ever had on the field. I’m currently trying to find a way to get to Virginia Beach for this week’s tournament – the boys’ first game is Wednesday evening – as we prepare to leave for Maine at the end of the week. Stay tuned.

A Sincere Thank You

Yesterday I received a very kind and wonderful email from Jim Bridgeman, from the Colby Class of 1961. Jim was a fraternity brother, teammate, and friend of my dad's, and he was writing to let me know that Diane Scrafton Ferreira had included a mention of this blog (and specifically the entry about my dad from this spring) in her latest edition of class notes. Thank you, Diane! I sincerely hope that I'll hear from some other folks with some good stories to share. Welcome, Colby College alumni - please be in touch.

Meet Me In New York!

Davidson basketball will play in the Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival on December 20 (noon) and December 21(7 or 9 pm). On Sunday we play a pretty spry Cornell team, and on Monday we'll play either Hofstra (Coach McKillop's alma mater) or St. John's. This is our second straight year playing in "The World's Most Famous Arena." Let's hope for results similar to last year's win over West Virginia!

I'll be in town Saturday morning through Tuesday morning. If you're thinking of making the trip, let me know. We're having pre-game events both days, and game tickets are still available. Find out how to get into the mix. NYC, baby.

Burial at Sea

Elena's brother Eric died last January, and over the summer Eric's family and friends gathered at least a couple of times to scatter his ashes in places that had been important to him. We missed the trip to the top of Mount Katahdin, but during our vacation week we did a pretty amazing burial at sea at Reid State Park. It was such the perfect day at the beach in Maine - late July, cool and drizzly, and foggy as all get-out.

Friends and family spoke on his behalf, messages were written in the sand for the tide to take away a few hours later, and then his ashes were taken out into the surf via sea kayak in the most dramatic fashion.

It's Happened, and I'm Sorry!

As I expressed in my first post last spring, my greatest fear in starting a blog would be that I'd lose some steam once I started it. I did pretty well in May and June, I kept up through my fabulous trip to Europe in July, and then reality sunk in. After my trip was a conference in Colorado, then vacation at home in Maine, and then catching up in the office after a month away. By the time I started thinking about it again, I was more than knee deep in the throes of fall on a college campus. It's not like anyone is hanging on each of my posts, but I made a promise to myself that I'd try to do this faithfully.

So... I'm sorry. I'll get back on the horse here, and will carry on with some posts as we move into the winter months. More soon. Happy December!

Omaha Beach

Most of us stood around staring, mouths open, trying to take it all in. That beach is just so huge. It's so far from the waterline up to the sea wall. The bluffs are so high and forbidding. There are concrete bunkers and trench lines everywhere you look. There were something like 2,000 Germans defending that one stretch of beach at the Vierville draw. Good god, how did anyone survive?! I was one of many who spent some time on that beach on the 4th of July, shaking my head in wonderment, disbelieving what had happened on that spot 65 years before.

Len told us about some of the stories that we know through pop culture and other, more factual bits of literature, and that many of them came from that very stretch of sand. For one day, we stood at the spot where many of the worst stories of Omaha Beach originate. In another time, that place was hell on earth.

Today I looked up something that Len told us about the infamous Bedford Boys of Virginia - the town that had a full generation of kids who were basically wiped out in a few hours' time. And it was right there in that spot. You know that scene in Saving Private Ryan when the boat drops its ramp and the entire platoon is cut to shreds by a waiting machine gun? That incident started with the Bedford Boys' experience. This monument was built on top of the bunker referenced in the story, the one at the mouth of the draw that faced east, down the beach:

There were many powerful moments on our trip, but for me I think that the trip to Omaha Beach topped the list. I came away with a couple pounds of sand and rocks which I plan to put into keepsake vials for myself and others.

The Davidson Crowd

All the photos are now downloaded, and I'll do my best to get some more out there for you to see along with some descriptions of the things we saw over those last few days of our trip. In the meantime, here is a good shot of the Davidson alumni group after dinner on our final night in Rudesheim.

In the days since our return I've spent a good deal of time thinking about all that we saw and did - what an amazing experience, and how nice to spend it with a group from Davidson!

Dinner Guests!

Bill Davis and Dennis Phillips.

Bruce Darden and Don Lupo.

We had the pleasure on our last night in Germany of being joined by two Davidson ex-pats, Don Lupo '78 and Dennis Phillips '65. They've each lived in the Frankfurt area for some time now, and had been attending the same church for a long time before they met each other and realized their Davidson connection. Good of them to come out and meet us!

Fathers and Sons

Gray and Seth Bullard on Omaha Beach.

Ross and Robert Manire atop the tower on the Meuse-Argonne battlefield.

Bruce Jr. and Bruce Darden Sr. in the Meuse-Argonne region.

Ward, Bill, and Kearns Davis at the Ludendorff Bridge site, Remagen.


So if you ask any of us who were on the trip this week, they would likely give you a somewhat predictable handful of highlights of our adventure: the scenery, the history, the guide (Franz) and historian (Len), the weather, the good company and conversation. But I'd add one to this that I'm not sure the others would: the joy of watching so many fathers and sons enjoying the journey together.

I'm back! Technical difficulties

Hey, everyone. The hotel in Metz two nights ago could give me a power converter, but didn't have internet service. The hotel in Hurtgenwald last night had internet service, but couldn't give me the converter for my out-of-juice computer.

We just checked into our palace in Darmstadt, and I've got both! So tonight I'll be able to post some things and some thoughts on our last night in Europe. I'm very sorry for the interruption.

Today was outstanding!

Photo above: the Ossuary at Verdun. Long story short, the remains of over 150,000 dead soldiers were piled up after the battle, and fill the lower level of this colossal monument.

July 5 - Normandy

It's pretty hard to follow a 4th of July tour of the invasion beaches. We had a great day, though it felt like we spent quite a bit of time on the bus. But we spent time in Bayeaux to see the cathedral and the tapestry, Rouen to see the cathedral there as well as some amazing architecture and the spot where Joan d'Arc was martyred at the stake, and we also strolled through some fields where the hedgerows were preserved as they were back in 1944.

In any case, I've been having a pretty difficult time getting photos uploaded quickly this morning, so I'm afraid I'll have to do just one from yesterday (and put the rest up when I have a better connection or when I'm home).

Today we're off to Belleau Wood and Verdun - pretty amazing locations. The Davidson group is doing really well, and it's been tremendously easy to enjoy everyone's company.

July 4th Photos from the Invasion Beaches

Our historian, Len, making a point on Omaha Beach (in front of the Vierville draw).


The Niland brothers' burial site - they were the inspiration for the Saving Private Ryan story.

German casement at Pointe du Hoc.

Ward at lunch, Ste. Mere Eglise.

The church at Ste. Mere Eglise, with its parachute reminder.

Peter on Utah Beach.

Mike and Loretta on Utah Beach.

Sorry for the quick post, but we're headed out to the marina area for a drink, and I wanted to get some of our photos from the day up here. More tonight (or tomorrow, at least!).

Elena, I love you and miss you. Kiss the boys for me.

Friday - Paris to Caen

If it weren't for one particular alumni director who managed to sleep through every attempt at waking him, the group would have left at 7:45 this morning for the long drive to Normandy. But we left at 8:05, and fought the traffic getting out of the city before somewhat clear sailing to Caen.

The Caen Memorial Museum was our next stop, and it was an impressive facility. A couple of folks commented on how interesting it was to see a history that we Americans think we "know," but that is a bit different when seen through a different set of eyes. For instance, this museum spent a great deal of space detailing the French Resistance, the partitioning of France during the Vichy years, and life under the occupation. In the photos above, that's a Britsh Typhoon fighter-bomber on the left: a really menacing airplane; on the right, in front of an Omaha Beach memorial, is Chris Gardocki, the former Steelers and Clemson punter who happens to be on the trip with us this week.

The next stop of the day was at Pegasus Bridge, the drawbridge over the Orne River just a few miles up from the beach. It was the objective of the British and Canadian paratroopers and glider forces, and it's a much-celebrated aspect of the Normandy invasion. Most unbelievable was to see how close to the bridge the glider pilots were able to land their plywood and canvas aircraft. The lead glider stopped just 47 yards from the east approach of the bridge, and the glider troops took their objective in just a few minutes. Had they not been successful, an entire German panzer division could have crossed into the morning's bridgehead area and pushed the British and Canadian amphibious forces back into the English Channel. It's really a remarkable story. Here we see the Bruce Dardens in front of the original bridge structure, which was replaced in the early 90s but is preserved at the musuem just a short distance from its original location.

Caen is a city of perhaps 250,000, but it doesn't feel that large when you're in the city center. It's a pleasant town, and appears to be very livable. When Montgomery failed to take the city in the opening days of the campaign, and in fact was still unable to break through after a full month, he grew impatient and decided that the way to dislodge the German defenders was to bomb the place to the ground. It's been a sore spot in Anglo-French relations since then, as the "liberators" from across the Channel laid waste to one of France's historical jewels. Miraculously, many ancient churches, the two abbies that were established by William the Conqueror, and William's castle itself managed to be spared. Save for these wonderful landmarks, Caen is a very new-looking city, which is kind of a shame since the older architecture is just so beautiful.


The good news in Caen is that the beers that were costing us 8 Euros in Paris last night are only 2.50 here. A group of us enjoyed a couple of drinks on the sidewalk this afternoon, out in the sun by the river, before tonight's excursion up to Guillaume's castle. Gorgeous!