1951
Picking up with 25 years ago from the pages of the Daily D of May and June, 1950, I start with one of those sometime "Official Notices" which appeared in the Saturday issue on Green Key Weekend. It read as follows:
"At the request of the Interdormitory Council, women guests will be permitted to remain in dormitories until midnight tonight. "The members of the Dormitory Committees have full authority at their discretion to revoke those privileges and to exclude individual guests."
Dates were then bedded down elsewhere. One place was the Blue Spruce Lodge on South Park Street across from the Davis Hockey Rink. It advertised $2 a night - phone 464. (Oh for those pre-dial days when the College switchboard was lodged in a small room behind the Hanover Inn front desk.)
Ralph Flanagan's big band played "in the Miller style" at a dance in Alumni Gym. The "D" printed the customary list of dates, which undoubtedly contained some ringers. (I didn't take the time to look.) The back page of that Saturday's issue purported to be an issue of "The Belcher J. C. Bee," "Belcher Junior College" allegedly having sent 17 beauties to Key. Included was a statement by "Dean Sylvia Fingerbottom."
We had spring football practice in those days, and Wet Down. A Peeping Tom was reported loose in Sachem Village, where, you may recall, married students lived. The existing "cut" system was junked with discretion given to the individual professor to reflect absences in grades. Students challenged the good faith of the change, one letter to the editor labeling it a step backward to 'Grade School' marking."
Tau Epsilon Phi became Dartmouth's 23rd fraternity, the first new one in 13 years. DonDworken was elected president; HowardPhillips, vice president. A Green team, including "Hap" Person and Les Viereck, won the Woodsmen's Weekend competition for the fourth straight year. The Undergraduate Council voted "eased hazing" for freshmen, 32-1.
On the culture scene, the Players put on three Noel Coward one-acters. Lawyer-playwright-poet Archibald MacLeish spoke in Great Issues, while city planner Lewis Mumford lectured. TheThird Man, starring Orson Welles played at the Nugget; also, Walt Disney's Cinderella. IgorMedvedev (now Mead) was the standout in a student art exhibit.
On the culinary scene, the Streamliner (diner) offered "chops, 75¢ tenderloin, $1.00; sirloin, 90¢." The ad continued: "for comfortable eating without a wait, for economy and speed. While I saw no ad, I recall that Ponzi's in Wilder (subsequently bigger and more expensive in Whitetown) had a soup to nuts lobster dinner for only $1.50!
The following classmates were making a splash on the spring sports scene: in baseball, Ray Lindquist and Jack Sutton; in golf, "Duke"Carey and Ed Eichler; in lacrosse, "Bo" Fiertz and Jack Giergerich; in squash, Paul Simel; and in track, John Cook.
With other extracurricular activities, May 1950 was the month of the peaceful turnover of undergraduate power to our Class. The tie vote for class president was broken with a second ballot which resulted in Dick Pugh becoming President; Berl Bernhard, vice president; DickHalloran, secretary; and "Pete" Henderson, treasurer.
On the campuswide political scene, BerlBernhard was elected president of the Undergraduate Council; Paul Staley, vice president and chairman of the Judiciary Committee; Dick Barnes, secretary; and Dave Hilton, treasurer. Jeff O'Connell was elected chairman of Palaeopitus.
At The Dartmouth, Ted Laskin became editor-in-chief; Frank Smallwood, managing editor; "Spud" Grey, business manager; JimWheatley, editorial chairman; Russ Dilks, assistant managing editor; "Woody" Klein, sports editor; Pierce McKee, local advertising manager.
Dave Wiggins was named editor-in-chief of the Aegis; Herm Christensen, business manager; and Warren Pfaff, art editor. Bill Mulligan was elected president of the Dartmouth Players; Warren Pfaff, student director. "Buck" Scott was named Winter Carnival Chairman.
In June, 612 seniors received their degrees, the largest number ever at Dartmouth. George Kennan was the graduation speaker. Other honorary degree recipients of note were Federal judge Harold Medina, New Yorker editor Harold Ross, architect Wallace K. Hamilton, and Atlantic Monthly editor Edward Weeks. With those ceremonies, we became THE GRAND OLD SENIORS!
Dartmouth in June 1950 was not the same Dartmouth we had entered in September 1947. Nor was either of those Dartmouths the same as the pre-World War II Dartmouth. Most of us arrived on Hanover Plain as teenagers still wet behind the ears. The overwhelming majority of upperclassmen were considerably older and had been in the war. Many of them would not have been at Dartmouth but for the G.I. Bill.
While the classes behind us were almost all teenagers, the veteran classes ahead of us had changed the Dartmouth scene. Irrelevant traditional impedimenta were discarded, academic success became generally respectable, and individual human rights became a cause in which Dartmouth was a leader. In a sense, without realizing it, we were heeding the earlier challenges of President Tucker.
The summer of 1950 was to see the outbreak of war in Korea, where American intervention had a moral base not unlike that of our participation in World War II. Unfortunately, it was to lead to further disastrous involvement in Asia which would fracture domestic unity.
Why do I write this epilogue to events of May and June 1950? For two reasons, I suppose. First, to suggest that attendance at our 25th Reunion June 17-20, 1976, can provide a fascinating opportunity to explore the impact of changing times on both Dartmouth and your classmates. Second, to suggest that Dartmouth's outstanding ability to react effectively to change receive your full support in this year s Alumni Fund.
Secretary, Apt. 32-A, 45 E. 89th St. New York, N.Y. 10028
Class Agent, Reader's Digest Pleasantville, N.Y. 10570
