The Dr. Seuss cover story in the November/December issue of this magazine renewed my gratitude for his influence in my life. We struck up a correspondence when, in middle school, I sent him a lengthy, Seussian-style saga about a chagrined alien whose desperate attempts to frighten earthlings are perpetually dismissed as swamp gas by the government. Dr. Seuss’ subsequent encouragement set me on a course of writing nonsense poems while sparking my desire to attend his then all-male alma mater. I treasure the congratulatory letter he sent upon my acceptance five years later and a career in children’s books nurtured at Dartmouth. Speaking of those early years of coeducation, Michael Aylward alerted me to a documentary that premiered Homecoming Weekend about the College’s first female exchange students. The film, Early Daughters of Dartmouth, Blazing the Trail to Coeducation, 1969 to 1972, is narrated by Connie Britton ’89 and features the long neglected pioneers who have now officially been adopted into the classes of 1969-73. Michael’s brother, David ’71, and Martha Johnson Beattie are interviewed. Classmates spotted during Homecoming were Chris Davis, David Englehart, Charles Kern, Bill Sinclair, Neil Tarzy, Anne White Katlic, Neil Van Dyke, and Rick Zimmerman along with executive committee members Joe Jasinski, Steve Melikian, Dana Rowan,and Cindy Shannon. Martha and Jim Beattie graciously hosted our class meeting and mini-reunion before joining a group of classmates to climb Bartlett Tower. The stories of Winter Carnival in this issue reminded me of the carnival sculptures during our four years, each eerily representative of my experiences at the time. First, there was that damn Cheshire Cat leering from the middle of the Green as I took a major wipeout while running to a lecture class where I was one of the only women and already felt like I’d fallen down Alice’s rabbit hole. Sophomore year, the theme was Disney. My advisor’s warnings about wasting time on “Mickey Mouse” activities haunted me as I passed that giant Mickey on my way to go canoe-sledding on the golf course. Junior year was a puzzlement all the way around—from debating the relevance of my major to debating which term to take off to pondering the relevance of a Viking ship emerging in front of Baker. Senior year, a gleaming Statue of Liberty signaled the freedom looming a few short months away. But would dreams untethered from the structure and friendships of Dartmouth glisten this brightly in reality or melt into a muddy heap? A feature in an upcoming issue of the alumni magazine focuses on siblings in the Dartmouth family. To the siblings previously mentioned in this column, I add my buddy Jack Brennan and Tom ’79. Another sibling pair, the late Katy Lebowitz Lockard and the late Mark Lebowitz ’77, deserve special mention. Mark, a gifted singer and pianist who performed with the Aires, died eight years after graduation. His brilliant and ebullient sister, Katy, died in 2006. Katy’s husband, our classmate David Lockard,established the Katy Lebowitz 1976 Academic Enrichment Fund inher honor.

—Sara Hoagland Hunter, 72 Mount Vernon St., Unit 4B, Boston, MA 02108; sarahunter76@gmail.com