It is hard to imagine how I could have improved on this day. Before I get started on the details of a weekend at West Point, I owe you an answer about the "what is it" photo. The winner was Dick and Eleanor Roth. It was a snow roller. Prior to the internal combustion engine, winter travel in New England shifted from horse and buggy/wagon to sleighs. To make the main arteries passable, a snow roller, pulled by oxen, turned those clogged roads into very passable routes.
As most of you know, Army's great football legacy has fallen on very hard times. We are struggling back and are now 3 and 3. Today was an SEC team, Vanderbilt . We won in over time with a field goal. It was a struggling game with the refs having a major impact. Our disinterested sportswriter observer, Cindy, on her TV at home said that there weren't any bad calls. The weather was fine, windy but fine. We each had a field goal hit the post and bounce through. The good news is that ours was the last one. To honor our old tradition, today we we retired Felix "Doc" Blanchard's number 35. His record at Army was 27-0-1 with a Heisman and a Sullivan.
After the game we had a classic tailgate party. We used one of the hors d'ouerves that we had fine-tuned at the Maine happy hours. Then Durelle and I took the dogs for a walk. In this case we walked up the south end of "Flirtation Walk", a well known cadet sanctuary. As the path got a bit rocky, I had to encourage Durelle to press on. We reached the overhanging "Kissing Rock", and I stole a kiss as I had over a half century ago.
The first picture was taken through the windshield. The second is the number retirement ceremony. The third is the cadets on the field after the game singing the "Alma Mater". The fourth is an evening shot up the Hudson and the last is a campfire picture that all of our Maine buddies would appreciate.
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