The Undergraduate Chair
It Rained in Hanover today, and in the rain "Wunderbar" started losing his head and his concertina. Carnival was over, and although some were reluctant to get to class, the snows were being washed down the Hanover drains, the girls had gone home, Campion's had changed the window display, and the Tanzi Brothers were talking about golf. These were signs of the home stretch, of sulphur and molasses, of more Dartmouth men stepping out into the wide, wide world.
.... and we've learned something. Yes, most of us have taken time out from the football games, the parties and dances, the Saturday night beer and the athletic field, the studies and bull sessions to think about what's coming, of what will be at the end of the Big Green rainbow. And we can foresee some of our problems.
Some say we'll have to learn to be members of a new kind of community; we'll have to reform. We'll have to be more careful as to just where we place our beer cans, we'll have to wear a clean shirt every day and tie our ties. We'll have to wear low shoes and learn how to shave every day, and although we groan a little and rub the stubble on our chins, we know we'll grow to like it.
Some say we'll have to come down from our Platonic levels, temper our theories, throw away the keys to our ivory towers, and meet the people. We'll have to break up our cliques and start helping the little guy in our new communities. We'll have to accept this thing called "reality," not being afraid to step off the curbstones of "the new life."
And as seniors, most of us know this, and we think that four years at Dartmouth have helped equip us to resolve life and to hit hard when we grab the horns of dilemma.
But this is not all just talk over cocktails; we've something to show already. Just this year we came back to Dartmouth with the College in a tough position. The pressure was on all during the summer, and we had to stand up and take it and say nothing. We think we've done this. Our own student judiciary organizations threw new power and punch into old laws. When a man stepped out of line, he got the verdict on the spot. There was no joking, few and short committee meetings, quick action and stern decisions The Dartmouth man has had a taste of what it's like to be kicked around, and he knows that the "granite" in his muscles and his brain is picking up a little more stiffener and resiliency.
Now with mid-year examinations over and the second semester under way, Hanover and half of Dartmouth College have forgotten about the Winter Carnival of 1950, but there are some of us who remember it as another step in the process of meeting a reality, producing, engaging in a show which required the help and cooperation of every man in the College.
If we look behind the crowning of the Carnival Queen, the grace and form of the ski jumpers, the basketball and hockey games, the swimming meet, the ice show, and the mammoth center-of-campus ice sculpture, we see more than 30,000 manhours of work put into the Dartmouth production.
And this year Carnival was on the ropes until four days before the first event took place. Before Monday, January 30, there was no snow on the Hanover Plain and there was none reported on the way. Reports from regretful weathermen told of 45-degree temperatures on the top of Mount Washington, and it rained on Sunday night, leaving only four days to go to build a ski jump, a slalom course, a downhill course, fraternity statues, a campus statue, an Outdoor Evening set, and a Currier & Ives winter atmosphere .... and no snow. At this point the only thing the Carnival date had to look forward to was a swimming meet, a Carnival ball, a basketball game, and a weekend of bridge.
But the rain stopped. And the snow came. It came hard and fast on Monday morning and we knew it would stay, and the wheels started turning. Volunteers packed the slalom run at Woodstock. More men made the trip to Moose Mountain to set up the downhill course. The Dartmouth Broadcasting System set up loudspeaking units on campus and called for men to work on the set for Outdoor Evening and the statue in the center of campus.
And we worked around the clock for three days. Ski events which were on the verge of being called off were put back on the agenda and telegrams went out to participating teams to be on their way. Hockey enthusiasts took heart as the.snow was followed by colder weather and the ice in Davis Rink held its surface.
On the Outdoor Evening set, men started working a 72-hour shift to finish an ice wall which went up 25 feet with one foot of thickness. This year ski runs were built on the stadium stands for skiers who would rush down the slopes with torches and escort the Carnival Queen on to the ice. Thousands of feet of wiring and over two hundred lights went into the ice show which was scheduled for the opening night of Carnival, and it took more than a committee, or a group of organizations, to do it. It took the men of Dartmouth, and they met the task even though they had to work right down to the wire.
Yes, it rained in Hanover today and the temperature took a little rise; a lot of the snow has disappeared and skis and ski poles stand idle in dormitory corridors and rooms, and seniors have only half a year to go.
But, we think we'll be all right. We've done a few good jobs and a few bad ones, we've flunked a few tests and we've passed a few others, but we've grown. We've had the courage to do what we "want to" and not what we "have to." we still fight off compromise with security, and more and more we're carrying out our convictions.
AN ESQUIMO BEING HUGGED BY A BEAR in a close duet entitled "Harmony" won first place for Psi Upsilon in the fraternity snow sculpture contest. The statue was designed by David H. Larson
CARNIVAL QUEEN: Peggy Lee McConnell of Garden City, N. Y., and Skidmore, was chosen to reign over the D.O.C.'s 40th annual winter festival.
DORM WINNER: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, ice copy of the original creation by Robert L. May '26, took a bow and top honors for Richardson Hall. Featured was a red light bulb you know where.
