If You Thought the Comps Were Hard, Try This Quiz
Feeling nostalgicforfailed traditions?Are you sure youknow which onesactually died?
THE PHRASE "Dartmouth tradition" seems almost redundant. As frail conductors of the College's past, traditions lend continuity, history, and charm to the campus.
But aside from the sanctity of the (now revised) Alma Mater and the memory of the Old Pine, it is surprising how many of Dartmouth's time-honored rites have had rather unillustrious origins. Below is a compilation of Dartmouth's more colorful onesincluding some that never were. Test your sense of your school's history by choosing which traditions are:
1. Students gather beneath windows at midnight and blow conch horns to serenade unpopular professors.
2. Graduating seniors meet at the site of the Old Pine, share puffs from clay pipes, and recite prophesies for the future.
3. At midnight of the first snowfall, students plunge into the river and then dash to steal the wreath from the president's door. The winner, crowned "Jack Frost," wears the wreath all weekend and is treated to complimentary beers at every fraternity.
4. During Green Key, students gather on the steps of Dartmouth Hall for the annual singalong called "Hums."
5. The Freshman Picture Fight erupts each spring when sophomores try to prevent the annual freshman class photo. The younger class is forced to dodge bully tactics, and even dynamite, in the struggle to get its picture taken.
6. Freshman trips initiate newcomers into the out-of-doors and school traditions and songs, including the Alma Mater.
7. The Sanborn Tea is a proper affair, complete with polished tea service and paper doilies. It is served promptly at four each weekday afternoon in Sanborn Library.
8. American Indians from around the country come to Hanover for a yearly Pow Wow.
9. Each fall, Outing Club members attempt to hike the 50 miles from campus to Mount Moosilauke within 25 hours, climbing 3,000-foot-plus peaks in the middle of the night and square dancing the following night in the Ravine Lodge.
10. Students on their way to exams get a dose of luck by rubbing Dean Craven Laycock's nose.
11. The Black Underground Theater stages an annual experimental play.
12. The remains of a livestock fence that once surrounded the Green has become the venerable Senior Fence. Tradition designates the fence as the sole property, gossip stoop, and stomping ground of the senior class. The few underclassmen who dare to sit on the fence do so at their peril.
13. Dorm-room phone machines inspire an annual contest for "Best Recorded Message."
14. Summer-session students risk submerged objects and the police when they take the forbidden leap off Ledyard Bridge into the Connecticut River.
15. If anyone dozing in the stacks awakens to find he has been locked into Baker Library for the night, the "Bookworming" tradition compels that student to read all of DartmouthMurders by morning and to quote from it loudly during breakfast.
16. During Green Key Weekend, Greek Games test the prowess of students in such competitions as the keg toss and the chariot race.
17. Letterless students place packets of cancelled stamps in their Hinman boxes to appease the "Mail Gods."
18. Literary-minded students and some professors trek to the College Grant for an annual Poetry Hike.
Is this frigidfeat stillwreathed inglory?
Does thislivestockfence stayseniors'property?
Has the magic gone bust?
A. Old (more than 20 years but still alive) B. New (less than 20 years old) C. Failed (no longer exist) D. Never existed in the first place
English major and unabashed traditionalist Nancy Staah '90 was a WhitneyCampbell Intern with this magazine lastyear.
