THE COLLEGE
COLLEGE memories have a way of taking on radiance over the years, until, as with a pearl, the grain of hard fact that started it all is buried in layer after layer of shimmering splendor. In years to come, it will be hard, however, to endow the 1951 Winter Carnival with wondrous qualities that it did not actually have. The Carnival weekend was one of those experiences that seem incredible all the while they are really happening, and what contributed most to such a feeling was the Dartmouth Outing Club's last-minute reprieve from rain-sodden disaster.
Wednesday evening, with everything that looked like winter being washed away in a heavy downpour, Carnival's chances were worth less than a plugged nickel. Suddenly the rain turned to wet, clinging snow, descending in blobs rather than flakes. The snow stuck to everything, weighing down trees and shrubs, and piling up' on the ground at a rapid rate. Then, hard on the heels of this turnabout, the temperature plummeted during the night and the whole fantastic setting was frozen into place so to remain for the duration of Carnival. If Hollywood had undertaken to create a winter wonderland for the "Mardi Gras of the North" a description of Carnival that chills the heart of the true-blue DOCerit couldn't have produced a better setting than the one that actually existed. Nor could it have turned up a brighter sun, a bluer sky, a bigger crowd, prettier girls, or a merrier spirit pervading the town. Hollywood would have omitted the sub-zero temperature that did not let up until the perfection of Saturday afternoon, but the cold made conversation and it was "different" for most persons present.
And so it was that in an atmosphere of make-believe, that really wasn't make-be-lieve, the Dartmouth Outing Club put on a Carnival that was a splendid success. Even the cantankerous ice rink for Outdoor Evening came around to just the right condition an hour before show time, permitting sparkling performances by Barbara Ann Scott and Sonya Klopfer, fresh from her triumph in the national women's championships in Seattle. To reign over all as Queen of the Snows the judges tapped pretty, blue-eyed Susan Darrah of Smith, whose queenly qualities we invite you to see on Page 22 of this issue.
After Carnival was all over, and the bare wooden bones of the snow statues were beginning to show, The Dartmouth ran a student letter thanking the DOC warmly for providing the whole College with a memorable weekend. No one could recall anything like that happening before. In fact, no one in Hanover who had witnessed most of the forty previous Carnivals could recall one that had had quite the special quality of the 1951 weekend. We imagine that it must have impressed even the hundreds of "visiting firemen" from other colleges who crashed the party.
