Class Note 1994
Issue
January-February 2021
Hi, fellow classmates. As we look ahead to a new year, I posed the following question on the “Dartmouth College Class of 1994” Facebook page: What do you plan to do in 2021 when Covid is no longer a limiting factor?
More than 25 classmates chimed in with variations of “We want to be around people!” As Aleise McCann Matheson writes,she wants to “have friends over. Lots. All the time.” We are looking forward to visiting family and traveling freely. We miss live music and movie theaters, and we especially miss enjoying these moments with each other. If you missed the Facebook postings, here’s a recap of your classmates’ plans for 2021.
Tony Lee keeps it simple and heartfelt with plans to visit family and Dartmouth friends. Katherine Zalios Maguire will take her children to Florida and Greece to reconnect with family. Debra Hofferman Brandt plans to reinstate weekly family dinners with her parents.
Shannon M. Sullivan mentions travel abroad—her family plans to “actually use our passports” to connect with extended family and friends in person. Lots of us want new stamps in our passports, too. Julia Caputo Stift wants to see her son living in Canada, Kathleen de Riesthal wants to connect with her husband’s family in Spain, and Nina Cook Silitch wants to “get back to the Alps—my old stomping grounds.” Colleen Linehan Haskell and Kelly Bell Lytle should book seats together, because they’ll go anywhere in Europe.
Jordan Frank looks forward to the good old days of going to a movie theater. Remember that? It seems like ages since we’ve shared popcorn, let alone air, with other cinephiles. Others miss live performing arts, from Broadway shows to their children’s school choral concerts. Aleise McCann Mathesoncan’t wait for her daughter’s show choir performances and competitions; she is even willing to chaperone the group on a chartered bus trip.
Katy Hayes wants to go out to dinner with family and friends beyond the shadow of a pandemic. I concur because I don’t want to wash any more dishes. Kelly Lytle mentions lingering over good drinks and conversation at a cocktail bar, an activity that gets an “amen” from many corners of our class. While my husband, Ken Davis, never goes on Facebook, if he even has an account, I know he would choose to go to the Nashville Whiskey Festival, which is lively, crowded, and delicious.
We have some classmates who still love the sweaty dancefloors and miss the mosh pits. In 2021 Ian Cameron will be heading to an “awful bar in Williamsburg or Bushwick” for late-night dancing, along with other movers-and-shakers Alison LeBoeuf, Maggie Lockwood, and Shannon Sullivan.
The fitness aficionados are looking forward to big races and opportunities to be out in nature. Ruth Maria Marmaril wants to “surf warm, turquoise waters with people who don’t speak the same first language.” Kristin Grosser Tufo, Charis Connell Taylor,and Nina Cook Silitch are looking forward to running—anything from 5ks to qualifying for the Boston marathon. Mike McClure has his sight set on a half-iron man competition.
Our class feedback wouldn’t be complete without a nod to the place common in all of our heart, and this time our classmates are looking forward to visiting Dartmouth as parents. Gates Bryant would like to go to a fall parents’ weekend in Hanover to visit his son and Kelly Lytle is up for a trip to visit her son, Richard. Sara Bone Dyett wants to see her son, Jack, “play Big Green football.”
The written and unwritten wishes and intentions for 2021 are numerous and ambitious, but I am ever hopeful that by 2022 we’ll have collectively checked these adventures off an inspired, metaphoric to-do list. Send me an update on your progress for the next column.
—Laura Hardegree Davis, 520 Meadowlark Lane, Brentwood, TN 03755; lauradavis723@mac.com
More than 25 classmates chimed in with variations of “We want to be around people!” As Aleise McCann Matheson writes,she wants to “have friends over. Lots. All the time.” We are looking forward to visiting family and traveling freely. We miss live music and movie theaters, and we especially miss enjoying these moments with each other. If you missed the Facebook postings, here’s a recap of your classmates’ plans for 2021.
Tony Lee keeps it simple and heartfelt with plans to visit family and Dartmouth friends. Katherine Zalios Maguire will take her children to Florida and Greece to reconnect with family. Debra Hofferman Brandt plans to reinstate weekly family dinners with her parents.
Shannon M. Sullivan mentions travel abroad—her family plans to “actually use our passports” to connect with extended family and friends in person. Lots of us want new stamps in our passports, too. Julia Caputo Stift wants to see her son living in Canada, Kathleen de Riesthal wants to connect with her husband’s family in Spain, and Nina Cook Silitch wants to “get back to the Alps—my old stomping grounds.” Colleen Linehan Haskell and Kelly Bell Lytle should book seats together, because they’ll go anywhere in Europe.
Jordan Frank looks forward to the good old days of going to a movie theater. Remember that? It seems like ages since we’ve shared popcorn, let alone air, with other cinephiles. Others miss live performing arts, from Broadway shows to their children’s school choral concerts. Aleise McCann Mathesoncan’t wait for her daughter’s show choir performances and competitions; she is even willing to chaperone the group on a chartered bus trip.
Katy Hayes wants to go out to dinner with family and friends beyond the shadow of a pandemic. I concur because I don’t want to wash any more dishes. Kelly Lytle mentions lingering over good drinks and conversation at a cocktail bar, an activity that gets an “amen” from many corners of our class. While my husband, Ken Davis, never goes on Facebook, if he even has an account, I know he would choose to go to the Nashville Whiskey Festival, which is lively, crowded, and delicious.
We have some classmates who still love the sweaty dancefloors and miss the mosh pits. In 2021 Ian Cameron will be heading to an “awful bar in Williamsburg or Bushwick” for late-night dancing, along with other movers-and-shakers Alison LeBoeuf, Maggie Lockwood, and Shannon Sullivan.
The fitness aficionados are looking forward to big races and opportunities to be out in nature. Ruth Maria Marmaril wants to “surf warm, turquoise waters with people who don’t speak the same first language.” Kristin Grosser Tufo, Charis Connell Taylor,and Nina Cook Silitch are looking forward to running—anything from 5ks to qualifying for the Boston marathon. Mike McClure has his sight set on a half-iron man competition.
Our class feedback wouldn’t be complete without a nod to the place common in all of our heart, and this time our classmates are looking forward to visiting Dartmouth as parents. Gates Bryant would like to go to a fall parents’ weekend in Hanover to visit his son and Kelly Lytle is up for a trip to visit her son, Richard. Sara Bone Dyett wants to see her son, Jack, “play Big Green football.”
The written and unwritten wishes and intentions for 2021 are numerous and ambitious, but I am ever hopeful that by 2022 we’ll have collectively checked these adventures off an inspired, metaphoric to-do list. Send me an update on your progress for the next column.
—Laura Hardegree Davis, 520 Meadowlark Lane, Brentwood, TN 03755; lauradavis723@mac.com