1967

1967

We asked classmates to imagine making an autobiographical film and for the soundtrack to tell us what music described their period at Dartmouth and what describes life today. Rob Kugler and Harry Jaffe each said “We Gotta Get Out of this Place” by the Animals defined their college life, while today for Rob it’s “whatever choral piece I am currently studying for the next performance” of the New Jersey Master Chorale, and for Harry it’s Jackson Browne’s “Doctor, My Eyes.” Tom Maremaa said at Dartmouth it was Bob Dylan’s “ ‘Masters of War,’ and now, incredibly, I’m listening to it again: Eddie Vedder’s 1993 version, singing with that deep, raspy voice of his and with all that heartfelt passion.” Tom has a new book coming out about the 1986 summit in Reykjavik with Reagan and Gorbachev and its geopolitical aftermath. George Wood says that John Prine and Iris Dement singing “In Spite of Ourselves” defines his 17 years with his wife, Carol. The phrase “We’ll end up sitting on a rainbow” will be on their gravestone. Ethan Braunstein feels Sam Cooke’s “Chain Gang” expresses his life at Dartmouth, while now it’s “Solsbury Hill” by Peter Gabriel. Ethan’s living in the mountains of northern Arizona, teaching part time at Northern Arizona University. John Manaras recalls Dartmouth life as “A Hard Day’s Night,” but today it’s defined by Ahmad Jamal’s “Poinciana.” Nate Smith is still in the basement by the jukebox singing along with the Temptations and his brothers to “My Girl.” Whenever Peter Golenbock hears “Men of Dartmouth” he “gets verclempt recalling four wonderful years writing for The Dartmouth every day. If it hadn’t been for Vietnam, I would never have left Hanover.” Today he’d pick “Happy Together” by the Turtles, which defines his life with his wife, Wendy Grassi: “I am one lucky guy.” Charlie Hoeveler says, “probably any one of 100 songs by my favorite artist, the late and great John Denver, but ‘The Wings that Fly Us Home,’ a great song about spirit and life would be on the soundtrack of my life.” For Bill White, “Dartmouth was ‘Glory Days,’ Springsteen’s anthem to youth and friendship. Today it’s all about being ‘Forever Young.’ ” Sam Stonefield believes the Four Tops “Can’t Help Myself” is the meta-metaphor for his lack of self-awareness and inner direction in college. “I kind of went with whatever was flowing around me at the time. Nowadays it’s ‘How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)’—the James Taylor version, mellow and happy.” Howard Sharfstein says his song would be “Still the Same” by Bob Seger: “In 1992, after six months of high-dose chemo in the hospital, I had no hair, lost 70 pounds, and looked like crap. But when I got home and took my then 10-yearold daughter in my arms, we danced to that song and the lyrics confirmed to us that I was still the same, still her dad, and still with her. To this day I am still the same.”

—Larry Langford, P.O. Box 71, Buckland, MA 01338; larrylan gford@mac. com