Class Note 1979
Issue
September-October 2026
Class Note 1979. What were the chart-topping songs when we returned to campus in the fall of 1976 50 years ago? Remember “A Fifth of Beethoven”? How about “If You Got the Money, Honey, I Got the Time” or, in a way that only Dartmouth really worked to literalize, “The Boys Are Back in Town”?
Movie titles from the start of our sophomore year included Obsession (romantic fixation) and Burnt Offerings (unknowing souls ensnared by unexamined traditions) and Survive! (chilly weather leads to cannibalism; choose your friends carefully and with, or by, tenderness).
Generalissimo Francisco Franco was still dead in the fall of ’76, but we were devouring life and pretty much everything that Thayer Dining Hall offered, burnt or not.
Members of the class of ’79 might sometimes be shy about sending updates on recent accomplishments, personal updates, new dreams, but we’ll dig in when it comes to the remembrance of meals past.
On Facebook I posed a question asking our colleagues to name their favorite foods from our youth.
Having been introduced to several entirely new food groups at Thayer Hall—including Welsh rarebit, which made my heart skip beats, perhaps literally—it was a treat to hear that others, too, had passionate reactions.
Here’s a selected menu of what we loved.
Dorothy Bullock-Fernandes writes: “Steak night and Sunday brunch!” an answer applauded by Bob Glicini, wife Paula, and me because Thayer was my formal introduction to brunch and eggs Benedict, a legacy I cherish the way other people cherish owning eggs Fabergé.
Dorothy also responded to Helen Davis Picher’s vote for the always-available and much-beloved soft serve ice cream, recalling an elusive “chocolate-covered orange ice cream bar I never found outside of Thayer.” Helen also loved “Thayer’s shepherd’s pie, which I had never had before. I make it as I remember it, which may or may not have any resemblance to Thayer’s.”
Lisa D. Saunders found the favorite food question easy to answer: “The amusingly named ‘German French toast’ at Dartmouth’s main dining hall. It was French toast that was deep fried rather than grilled. I still dream about it.” Howard Hyde “had soft-shelled crabs there for the first time” and found the experience “enlightening. I was enlightened as to their deliciousness.” Andy Heller liked the “clam chowder on Fridays,” while Allen Chen’s favorite was more exotic: “Seafood Newburg! But that was only once per term, whereas soft serve ice cream was an everyday pleasure.”
Rick Reno asked if the pizza place C&A counted because he remembers “being on its 14-meal plan for three years.” Philip Odence fondly recalled C&A asking customers, “To here or to go?”
Stuart Michael Lewan reminded me that, while some of us who were work-study students found other jobs, a “defiantly proud core group wore the Thayer job with pride, as proof of their self-reliance … and refusal to allow class distinctions to visibly affect them.”
I’ll end with Ted Wills’ reply: “No memory of the food, just riding the tray machine and shouting ’79!’ ”
Bon appétit.
—Gina Barreca, 394 Browns Road, Storrs, CT 06268; gb@ginabarreca.com
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More of 1979 Class Notes
Movie titles from the start of our sophomore year included Obsession (romantic fixation) and Burnt Offerings (unknowing souls ensnared by unexamined traditions) and Survive! (chilly weather leads to cannibalism; choose your friends carefully and with, or by, tenderness).
Generalissimo Francisco Franco was still dead in the fall of ’76, but we were devouring life and pretty much everything that Thayer Dining Hall offered, burnt or not.
Members of the class of ’79 might sometimes be shy about sending updates on recent accomplishments, personal updates, new dreams, but we’ll dig in when it comes to the remembrance of meals past.
On Facebook I posed a question asking our colleagues to name their favorite foods from our youth.
Having been introduced to several entirely new food groups at Thayer Hall—including Welsh rarebit, which made my heart skip beats, perhaps literally—it was a treat to hear that others, too, had passionate reactions.
Here’s a selected menu of what we loved.
Dorothy Bullock-Fernandes writes: “Steak night and Sunday brunch!” an answer applauded by Bob Glicini, wife Paula, and me because Thayer was my formal introduction to brunch and eggs Benedict, a legacy I cherish the way other people cherish owning eggs Fabergé.
Dorothy also responded to Helen Davis Picher’s vote for the always-available and much-beloved soft serve ice cream, recalling an elusive “chocolate-covered orange ice cream bar I never found outside of Thayer.” Helen also loved “Thayer’s shepherd’s pie, which I had never had before. I make it as I remember it, which may or may not have any resemblance to Thayer’s.”
Lisa D. Saunders found the favorite food question easy to answer: “The amusingly named ‘German French toast’ at Dartmouth’s main dining hall. It was French toast that was deep fried rather than grilled. I still dream about it.” Howard Hyde “had soft-shelled crabs there for the first time” and found the experience “enlightening. I was enlightened as to their deliciousness.” Andy Heller liked the “clam chowder on Fridays,” while Allen Chen’s favorite was more exotic: “Seafood Newburg! But that was only once per term, whereas soft serve ice cream was an everyday pleasure.”
Rick Reno asked if the pizza place C&A counted because he remembers “being on its 14-meal plan for three years.” Philip Odence fondly recalled C&A asking customers, “To here or to go?”
Stuart Michael Lewan reminded me that, while some of us who were work-study students found other jobs, a “defiantly proud core group wore the Thayer job with pride, as proof of their self-reliance … and refusal to allow class distinctions to visibly affect them.”
I’ll end with Ted Wills’ reply: “No memory of the food, just riding the tray machine and shouting ’79!’ ”
Bon appétit.
—Gina Barreca, 394 Browns Road, Storrs, CT 06268; gb@ginabarreca.com