1948

Your reporter was fortunate to spend a few days in Hanover in early September before College opened. Perhaps a few scenes will remind fellow '48s of the Hanover you knew, not as greatly changed as one might think, even though we left The Plain more than 40 years ago.

The weather was comfortably warm, and the sun shone each day in a gloriously clear blue sky. The green trees were still green, and the roadside views of the New Hampshire hills reflected in the blue waters—as seen from the Vermont side of the Connecticut while I was driving north from Hanover—were as gorgeous as ever. Oak Hill, Pineo Hill, the long ridge of Moose Mountain, Holts Ledge, the high breadloaf of Smarts. Still there, still beautiful.

Main Street has many new storefronts and few faces we knew, yet is surprisingly unchanged. The old buildings we knew are still largely the same. But a landmark known to so many generations of Dartmouth men, Campion's, had just closed its doors for the last time when I was there. It stood starkly empty, a huge change in the old order. Five banks now operate in town, most on Main Street, the two we knew having been swallowed by takeovers. Notable absences today, in addition to the Tanzis we knew, are the Indian Hole, Allen Drug, Putnam's, Ward's Hardware, and Hap'n'n'Hal's in the Alley. Although the Streamliner Diner still exists somewhere in New Hampshire, it was long ago removed from Allen Street. The Co-op still exists, but Fletcher's underground emporium is completely gone, leaving not a single stick of his endlessly used furniture. The Dartmouth Bookstore remains, but it has moved downstreet near where George Gitsis Greek Armpit used to be. And how about the little sidewalk stands out front of the old firehouse/police station where Chief Andy Ferguson used to hold sway?

Still the same, at least in appearance, are: Lou's (though without Lew Bressette and the gang of Barlow, Hudak, Leede, McTarnahan, etc., it's not the same); the Hanover Inn (but the Coffee Shop's successor is now wholly within the building); Nugget Alley's collection of small shops, especially a little barber shop manned by an oldtimer (though not the Jack Roberts of the old Tony's above Granite State Electric) which has two young lady barbers to attract the men students; and Serry's, now moved to a neat little building on Leb Street, where Sam and Dom Zappala, of my era at Hanover High, man the ramparts. They bought out Serafino, who retired back to his native Sicily before passing to the Great Tailor Shop in the Sky. Other stalwarts: the now-old-but-still-handsome post office, its front entryway no longer supporting the Uncle Sam "I want you!" poster so many '48s remember; and Jack Manchester's Gulf Station on Lower Main (which Jack no longer owns, and which no longer sells That Good Gulf Gasoline). Almost any place on Main still remains today a great vantage point from which to watch the activity up and down the street while leisurely enjoying an ice cream cone, perhaps the main difference being that now the single-dipper costs $1.25 instead of a dime. Main Street today essentially remains the Main Street we knew, part of that great phenomenon about our Dartmouth which poets denote simply as "Place." Who can forget. . .

It was great to be back in Hanover. Hope you get a chance to see it for yourself, at our 45th in 1994 if not sooner, and be sure to check in with some of the many '48s who now live in the Upper Valley.

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