1977

Dateline Allenspark, Colo. Yes, it is possible to travel on a cross-country camping trip with a five-year-old and a two-year-old, and even to enjoy it. We spent our summer vacation in July driving to Colorado for a week's rendezvous in the Rockies with friends from California. (No, it's not halfway, but then, we didn't really want to spend a week in Kansas.) This column was written by the light of a Coleman lantern at one of our campsites.

En route west, we spent nearly a week in Michigan, stopping off briefly in Midland to visit Frank '74 and Marian MeijerDoorley, and their children Kate 5, and Liam 2. Our Kaethe and Scott, just about the same ages, were eager to jump out of the car for some play and lemonade, and our 30-minute stop stretched into an hour and a half.

It had been 11 years since we last drove across the Midwest and Great Plains, and we sensed once more the echoes of the pioneers following the Oregon and Mormon Trails. As we observed the eight different methods for baling hay along Interstate 80, we also sensed how very different our world is from theirs. Crossing those open spaces, not nearly so flat as the media on the U.S. coasts would have us believe, we had ample time to think of classmates through whose original home states we were passing. Iowa's corn rows brought thoughts of DrewKintzinger; Kansas wheat, of Lindsay Larrabee Greimann; Indiana farms, of ChrisMumford. Such reflections reminded us of how Dartmouth focused a thousand diverse individuals in one place for four years, and the ways in which we have all traveled closer to, or farther from, our geographical homes in subsequent years. (And in case you're ever passing through Lincoln, Neb., and would like to take a break, that city offers a delightful children's zoo, complete with train and pony rides and a wonderful stegosaurus skeleton fountain.)

Back on that homefront, Hebe Quinton has been promoted from a Kiewit consultant to assistant director of user services at Kiewit Computation Center. We've had the pleasure firsthand of Hebe's expertise in solving a variety of computing problems, and know she'll bring energy, enthusiasm, and new ideas to her new position.

George V. Grune has been promoted to managing director of the GE Capital Corporate Finance Group, headquartered in Stamford, Conn. Named an officer and vice president of GE Capital, George joined the organization in 1986 as executive vice president and manager of the media group. A former economics major who completed an M.B.A. at Tuck, he was previously with Mellon Bank.

Happy trails to you . . . and drop us a line sometime.

P.O. Box 861, Norwich, VT 05055