1966

"Some people are born to greatness, some have'it thrust upon them ..." Sometime in early October, Jack Stebe thrust greatness upon me. Rick MacMillan was eager to let go of the reins of this column. And, having had a sensational time at the 20th last June, I felt moved to contribute something. I was probably Jack's eighth or ninth choice (thanks to seven or eight of you!). While I am on the subject of the reunion, I want to make the comment that one could not help but be impressed and moved by the large numbers of friendly, positive, and productive people there. It isn't enough to say the people were friendly. They were interested. To be sure, I spent my share of time telling stories about what did or did not happen 20 years ago. But I also spent a good deal of time talking to people who were not my classmates wives, kids who met my kids. I enjoyed all the scheduled items that Albie and Jon put together for us. But, as much as anything, I enjoyed meeting and being with people associated with my classmates.

I have no news to list in this first column. My deadline for getting information came four days after I agreed to do it. I was left with two items. I'll include them in the next column. My hope here is to sow some seeds that may be of interest to you and will spark some responses for later issues.

I think many of us are past the frantic moving of med school, grad programs, and corporate training programs. Many of the life stages that we will recall at the end are behind us. But, looking around last June, I sensed that many of us might be right in the middle of some common items. How many of us are involved in the volunteer work that goes with having kids from five to fifteen? Coaching youth soccer? Little League? Refereeing? Boy Scouts? Girl Scouts? I'm talking about the whole range of things that somebody has to do if our kids are going to do anything at all. I've been yelled at by soccer parents and hockey parents. How about you?

The other thing that many of us are involved in at this point is supervising adolescence. I saw many of your kids. They look like mine. I want to know: how are you going to handle car dates, telephone, study priorities? Knowing what you know about dating, weekends, cars, boys, girls what are you doing about it? I don't think any of us are inherently good at this. My sense is it takes work and time. And you hope for the best. Some of you already have kids in the 17-18 and up category. We in the 14—15 year bracket need your help. Those of you in the 9-10 bracket will need help, although you might not yet know that. Those of you in the 4-5 and below range, we all feel for you!

Do you realize the incongruities that progress has presented us with? Do you realize that your daughter may someday be a freshperson at Dartmouth and roadtrip to see her boyfriend who is a junior at Skids?! How will you handle that?

Finally, we have to be patient with the athletics at Dartmouth. First, we were spoiled in our time by the success of the more visible sports. But, more important, realize Dartmouth is in a no-win situation. Any hotshot that Dartmouth wants is bound to be chased by Harvard, Yale, and Brown, and any other top school. When those schools get through carving up each other while trying to get the same few kids who can qualify, a kid may still not get in. If he does get in, BC comes along and offers the guy a full fide and steals all our hard work. If Dartmouth had taken all the athletes the alumni wanted them to go out and get in the spring of 1962, many of us would be celebrating our 20th at Middlebury or Bowdoin! I don't know the answer to the question of us competing favorably, but I can see the problem.

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