Freshman Week
The first week of college had a decidedly freshman emphasis with meetings for the first year men in the Bema and the Trophy Room followed by Activity Night, when leaders in the various extra-curriculum activities outlined the possibilities of work in their line to the first year men.
The Dartmouth greeted the newcomers as it has done for generations in part as follows: "You have come to a college that is distinct, unique, and without parallel. It is an institution wherein you will get four years of "college" in' its most concentrated form it offers you no women, very little wine, and no song but of its own brewing. It offers you none of the cosmopolitan things, nothing of those gay worldly things which mean so much to life in other colleges. So much for diversion. For climate it offers neither the balmy days of sweet California nor the clear, crisp days of icy Canada. In winter it is raw, windy, and the air is filled with snow; in spring it is slushy and mushy beyond comprehension by anyone who has not lived in it....
"Simply and concisely put, Dartmouth has to offer you 'fellowship.' When in the course of time you have learned to prop up your feet and light a cigarette, a pipe if you're poor, a cigar if you're rich, like a true Dartmouth toreador, 'Throw the Bull' and 'chew the fat' and 'talk It over' you will know something of that vague and precious thing called 'Hanover atmosphere,' and you will, furthermore, be able to answer your friend from Amherst, from Yale, or from Wisconsin when he asks you why you ever came to a place like this. Dartmouth offers you the opportunity to make friends—swing into the give and take and you will not only lay the ground for four of the happiest years of your life but you will graduate with a knowledge and appreciation of your fellows like no other college men."
1929 and 1930 battled for twenty minutes on the campus to gain possession of three whitewashed footballs. The sophomores gained an early advantage but numbers counted and the closing gun found the freshmen victors and rapidly becoming a tangible part of Dartmouth.
