19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

GOLDEN BELLES
Sirs:
I hope I'm the first of the great Jewish enthusiasts to cheer the last of the great Jewish linebackers—Gilbert Rogin. His piece on the Texas hair-spray Olympics (Flamin' Mamie's Bouffant Belles, April 20) was matched only by his Confessions of a Stoop Ball Champion. He gets three cheers, two gold medals and one fond warning to please stay out of Texas. We need him.
STUART SCHULBERG
NBC NEWS
Washington

Sirs:
We Iowa track buffs request equal time for our four Iowa high school girls running under the banner of the Iowa Track Club. Our Iowa corn-fed girls defeated the previously unbeaten Texas Track Club in the 440-yard relay at the Drake Relays held in Des Moines, April 24-25, before a sellout crowd of over 18,000 track fans. Now, perhaps our Iowa young ladies do not go to the beauty parlor previous to every meet, do not wear dazzling uniforms, nor are they covered with elaborate makeup—but when these wholesome young lassies compete they win.
CHET BROWN
Marshalltown, Iowa.

DEAN'S LIST
Sirs:
Thank you for the series on how to "Harmon-ize" the golf swing (Let Me Help Your Game, April 27 and May 4). It emphasizes that golf requires a high order of consistency in the "action relationships" of ball to club, club to hands, hands to arms, arms to body, and body to terrain. It also reveals that golf requires a stern discipline.

Claude Harmon has scored high enough to be placed on the "dean's list." In fact, there may be a few golfing deans who would like to be on Harmon's list.
WENZEL ALBRECHT
Stevens Point, Wis.

IKE'S NETMEN
Sirs:
It is interesting you should mention that L.B.J. White House tennis team in your PEOPLE column. In a recent Administration more famous for golfing than for tennis, the White House had a tennis team that could probably beat the current group of footfaulters even without Ted Sorensen.

On the Eisenhower White House staff were Dr. Charles F. Masterson, nationally ranked for 15 years and currently the Eastern senior tennis champion; Stan Rum-bough, who, with Masterson, was ranked No. 3 in the East, No. 1 in doubles in Washington; Bryce Harlow, who is still in Washington and a very tough competitor; and Clarence B. Randall, a real dark horse.
CHARLES F. MASTERSON
New York City

SMOKE AND SHAME
Sirs:
It was with immense interest and pleasure that I read Bil Gilbert's article, Exaltation at the Smokehole (April 27). My interest was spurred by the similarities between Mr. Gilbert's experience and mine on the James River in Virginia last summer. In our two-week, 220-mile trip we passed over countless "cross-stream dikes," saw deserted houses and the unblemished grandeur of nature. We even had our own keyhole experience (we lost all of our food and part of our gear). The most exciting experience of our trip, however, was passing through Balcony Falls. Here, in cutting through the backbone of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the James falls off some 200 feet in four miles.

My sincere appreciation to Mr. Gilbert whose vivid account of his experience helped me to relive my own.
R. MICHAEL TUGGLE
Aiken, S.C.

Sirs:
If I could write as beautifully and diaphanously as Bil Gilbert did in his Smokehole article, I could express my sheer enjoyment in reading it.

The white-water descriptions were spinetingling and his sympathetic treatment of the abandoned homes and their contents was superb.
FREDERICK W. PULVER JR.
Syracuse, N.Y.