1938

Box 42 Waterford, ME 04088

Let's talk a little this month about reunions, future and past. After all, it is midwinter, season of the blahs and the doldrums, and so perhaps we all could use a shot of psychological Geritol by anticipating, if only in the mind's eye, pleasant future events and a happier time of year.

I refer specifically to next June 10,11, and 12. Back in 1938 it required a massive exercise of the imagination even to conceive, theoretically, of the year 1988. But of course time passes; that year is here. And here too, almost, is our 50th Reunion. Dick Francis's second mailing is no doubt now in your hands, but as of December 1 Dick reports that 125 classmates and six widows have said they definitely plan to be on hand, and 28 classmates have said "maybe." That's a fine early reservation record, but since the College's statistically-based projections suggest that something around 225 classmates will probably show up, Dick strongly suggests that you stop deferring the inevitable. You know that in the end you'll decide to come. So make your reservations now!

As for reunions past, you've read about this year's mini in the report from our faithful Tour Director. Here, therefore, only a small personal assessment and a footnote. The reunion had several special things going for it this time: Halloween weekend, the Yale game, and of course the traditional Dartmouth Night parade, in which the '38 contingent marched—well, walked anyway—the parade route led by two immense banners and a sign stretching the width of the street, sidewalk to sidewalk (made by John Scotford, who else!), proclaiming that '3B was indeed in town again. The footnote: as we passed the Inn corner I overheard one pretty female undergraduate turn to a friend and say incredulously, "Gee, 1938! I can't believe in 50 years we'll be marching like this." Just you wait, my friend; just you wait! And oh yes, a final statistic: attending the reunion were 41 classmates, 38 wives, four widows, and a guest.

But it wasn't all Green hoopla. At our Saturday morning class meeting Bob Reeve shared a remarkable, fascinating letter he had recently received from India Wood '88, one of the two recipients of aid from our Class of 1938 scholarship fund, in which she described the three-month internship with the Peace Corps which she had spent in Botswana last year, thanks to a Tucker Foundation fellowship. Because of lack of space here I'm sending it on to Dan Marshall in hopes he can reproduce it in the Pace Setter. We should all read it in its entirety, I think, for it offers striking evidence that for a bright, alert student a contemporary Dartmouth education can be an almost inconceivably rich, variegated, rewarding experience, well beyond anything we knew in our day.

THE-WAY-IT-WAS DEPARTMENT

Winter Carnival 50 years ago. The one with no snow, remember? In mid-January all seemed normal, the Dartmouth reported: 14 inches of "skiable" snow, all jumps and tows open. Then came the big thaw. Undaunted, the DOC carried on: the golf course hill and the ski jump were handpacked with trucked-in snow; Outdoor Evening went off as scheduled, as did the downhill and slalom on Moose Mountain. Miss Avila Brooks of Washington, D. C., was chosen Carnival Queen. In her obligatory interview with the Dartmouth reporter she was quoted as saying, "I simply love spinach." Somehow life was simpler in those remote days.