1960

A few years back, Nancy and I were waiting in the crowded departure area of the Cairo, Egypt, airport. Eventually, two planes worth of passengers were allowed to erupt onto the tarmac. When I spotted Joe Graham '59, who I hadn't seen since he graduated, we managed 60 seconds of conversation before continuing on to our respective aircraft. I thought that chance meeting rated some sort of "Round the girdled earth they roam" award. But try this one on for freak coincidence.

Hap Dunning lives in Davis, Calif. Marty Weiss lives in Flintridge, Calif. In 1956-57 they both lived on the second floor of Hitchcock Hall. In August of 1989 Hap took his son, Thad, on a three-week trip to East Africa, which included a six-day camping safari in northern Tanzania. They arrived at their first campsite after dark. Rising in the half light of early dawn in anticipation of seeing their first wild elephants, Hap and Thad were confronted by the specter of a fierce-looking, heavily armed (although slightly balding) Indian clad in khaki safari pants and dark green sweatshirt. Adrenalin flowed; anxiety soared. Was this apparition a poacher/bandit?

As the twilight brightened, Hap's pulse rate slowed. The sawed-off shotgun waving in his direction was, in reality a 35mm camera equipped with a 400 mm telephoto lens. The dark green sweatshirt had letters across the chest, "DARTMOUTH," and on its back the numerals "60." "It turned out to be Marty Weiss, whom I had not seen since graduation. Marty and his wife, Debby, with daughters Jessica and Elisabeth, were in Tanzania to visit son Brad, Dartmouth '84, who is doing anthropological field work in the Mwanza area near Lake Victoria. They were on a 2 3-day camping safari across northern Tanzania to Rwanda to visit the famed mountain gorillas there. It was great fun renewing our friendship and swapping recollections of freshman year." The moral of this story is clear. It's easier to journey halfway around the world to meet a classmate than it is to fight the traffic on California's freeways.

Meanwhile along the El Camino Real in Hillsborough, Calif., windshields are being bombarded with flyers announcing BruceHasenkamp's decision to seek reelection to the Hillsborough City School District board of trustees, where residents have grown accustomed to private school educational standards on public premises. During his first term, Bruce spearheaded a successful drive to convince voters to institute a school tax. Now, raising taxes in California takes some real doing! Congratulations Bruce, and good luck at the polls.

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