Since the news beat has been slow lately, we thought we would go back to the master, Fritz Hier, for inspiration. This short essay was written circa 1996. The more things change….


“Is Dartmouth too big? Of course it’s too big. And so is [sic] HEW, General Motors and the AFL/CIO and the Vatican and the NFL and the United Nations and the national debt.


“And so are Everest and the Grand Canyon and the Amazon and so were Caruso and Chaliapin and Casals, and they make you weep to see or hear them. The whole world’s too big, and how does Dartmouth stop its growth when all around it every manner of things are green-stamping and pop-corning, double-dipping and selling $25 billion and going crazy? Does Dartmouth stop growth and inflation by reducing fees and going bankrupt? Does Dartmouth lower salaries and lose its faculty? Does Dartmouth go back to the abacus while the world figures in BASIC?


“No, on a relative scale, Dartmouth is still a small college with so many of those who love it. But one so often longs for Walden instead of wall-to-wall, that lovely simple Model A rather than four-on-the-floor, rack and pinion, dual injection. The country store is now a supermarket and the postman a zip code, and the pharmacy a chain. The soda jerk is a dispensing machine, the telephone operator is an area code (or a recording, ‘the number you have dialed…’). Horses are cars and jets, legs are bikes and motorcycles, snowshoes and skis are chairlifts and snowmobiles.” 


We extend our condolences to the families of three of our classmates who have died: David W. Little, Robert “Pete” W. Peterson and Samuel H. Coombs.


—Betty Munson ’44a, 23 Linscott Road N., York, ME 03909; emmunson1944@gmail.com