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Show LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: At the outset I would like to thank Tommy Dee for his very generous introduction. It is reassuring to have one of your directors speak of you in such terms, for it gives one a sense of security of employment. More and more in recent years I have been trying to compile a list of the advantages of growing older. Thus far the only one I can find is the fact that as you get thinner on the top and thicker in the middle the introductions accorded you become more complimentary. Tommy's remarks are in sharp contrast to an introduction that I received when I was a freshman at Stanford. I was invited by one of my fraternity brothers to come meet his family at their home in Woodside, California and I arrived there expecting to find the father a typically sedate San Francisco businessman attired in blue serge suit and formal in the extreme. When I arrived, my fraternity brother took me by the arm, led me around to the other side of the house and out into the garden where there were some 50 Stanford students, including most of the campus heroes of the time, sitting on the lawn and facing a canopied canvas chair. As I was led around to the front of the chair I found it contained the father, who was holding court with a group of obvious young admirers. Contrary to my expectations, he was dressed in black and white knickers, loud unmatching plaid stockings, scuffed and unshined high shoes, with a little cap on the back of his head. As I approached everyone quieted down and his son presented me to the father with the comment "Dad, I would like to have you meet one of the nuggets of the class. Before I could say anything, the father looked me up and down and said "Son, if that's a nugget, I'm going off the gold standard!" |