Given the production schedule for Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, this writing is taking place between Christmas and New Year’s Eve in 2022. So by the time this reaches you near springtime, you may have had experiences that would be of interest to your classmates. Are you planning more or any travel and have you really been able to shake the issues or fallout from the pandemic? Suddenly we have found that we have children who are more than 60. Do you remember talking to them about dating and birth control? Now we are talking to them about Social Security aspects. And grandchildren have now graduated from college and perhaps started a family. But through all this newness, many of us still find Dartmouth and the Hanover Plain as our centering point. Children, grandchildren, friends, and acquaintances are all amazed at how much Dartmouth has captured us and led us through life. I think we have all had the experience when faced with a decision or uncomfortable situation, we all wished that we could return to those halcyon days, when “Great Issues” or Thayer Hall or Winter Carnival or the Tower Room or Russell Sage or the faculty or Tanzi’s or our athletic teams and clubs or the Green provided us all with the strength that we needed. My father (’31) put it very clearly: “Being a student at Dartmouth is as good as it gets. This is the easiest job you will ever have. Your food and housing are covered; all you must do is get some grades and keep your nose clean.” I am not sure that I lived up to his aspirations, but the message was very clear and true.

We all continue to enjoy and benefit from our virtual mini-reunions. I hope you will find the chat rooms as a conveyance to connect you with those you have been wondering about. Since you have not been overwhelming me with the news of what you have been doing or are planning to do, I am planning to be a little more proactive with classmates and will plan to call some of you to elicit your experiences so that I may inform our classmates, through this medium, of more up-to-date descriptors of your activities and aspirations.

Do stay connected and let me know of your happenings or classmate encounters.

—Charlie MacVean, 3528 Liggett Drive, San Diego, CA 92106-2153; (619) 508-4401; crmacvean@msn.com