Class Note 1965

Summer has been glorious in Minnesota. Too much water early, which was hard on our farmers, but generally free of the oppressive heat the rest of the country experienced. The cooler days of fall are coming, ushered in by the state fair, as always.

In Hanover Betsy and Mike Gonnerman and Larry Duffy have spent summer months volunteering at the Dartmouth information booth on the Green, which is sponsored by Sphinx, courtesy of Peter Frederick.

Earlier, April saw the 5 Colleges Book Sale, started by President Dickey’s wife and still going strong. The event takes in 100,000 books and raises about $80,000 for scholarships for New Hampshire and Vermont students at Mount Holyoke, Simmons, Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley. Marcia and Larry Duffy and Gonnerman all work the event.

I asked, somewhat plaintively, for reminiscences of times at Dartmouth. Thanks to Ward Hindman for this memory of a road trip to Skidmore. “It was fall 1967. I was at Thayer School after getting my A.B. I had been given the name of a young lady at Skidmore College in New York and made a date to meet her. To keep me company on the way, I arranged to take three freshmen along.” (You all surely remember the agony of freshman year isolation.) “The trip down was uneventful, with the three super-pumped about winning their first football game. At Skids I dropped the players off and proceeded to meet my date. We sat together in a large lounge area, well chaperoned, and chatted. After a while it was clear that there was no magic, and I decided to see how my freshmen were doing. When I first arrived at the dorm where I’d dropped them, I didn’t see anyone waiting at the door looking for me, so I parked. As I got out of the car I realized there were three knots of activity off in the dark. I walked over to the first and discovered one of my freshmen on the ground getting the snot beat out of him by several guys who looked like offensive linemen. Here I was at 5 feet, 4 inches and maybe 150 pounds grabbing these guys and pulling them away. I dragged my guy back to the car and went off to rescue another one. At least he was still upright. I got the second one away from his attackers, and we went together to rescue the third. I got them in my brand-new Monza Corvair and realized they were bleeding all over my upholstery. I had some clothes in the trunk, which they used to clean themselves up. I don’t know if I broke the record for the trip to Hanover, but I was well above the speed limit the whole way. We went straight to the ER at the hospital. I never did find out if they recovered enough to play the next game, but I’m sure they learned something about bragging in front of the wrong people.”

More like that, folks—send more like that.

—John Rogers, 6051 Laurel Ave., #310, Golden Valley, MN 55416; (763) 568-7501; johnbairdrogers@comcast.net