Jon Mendes just called us and said he had passed his stress test and the doctor said he is good to go for the marathon next Sunday. Would we have two cold cans of beer ready? Our apartment is at Mile 17 and apparently the doctor prescribed the beer as “fuel.” Go, Jon. Go, Dartmouth.


While gathering news for this column I had a nice phone visit with Ed Chalfant, who said he broke his hip a month before we spoke and that it has healed well. We began to reminisce about Dartmouth in our day that today’s students may find interesting. Do you remember when we entered Dartmouth we ate in the Commons and were not allowed to choose our dining partners so that we would get to know everyone? We soon learned our way around that. We found a place in an alley off Main Street where we could get two meals for a small amount of money and have what we liked and choose our dining companions. It was less expensive. We think it might have been called Ma Smalleys.


Then we began talking about the historic fifth down against Cornell. How many of you remember this?


Ed recalled he was eating lunch when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941. At his table there was a Japanese student. Ed said we all turned to him and said, “What will you do?” The fellow replied curtly, “My family will take care of me.”


Ed reminded me of the uniqueness of Dartmouth compared with Harvard in our day. Because there were no grad programs it meant that we were taught by professors, not assistants as at Harvard. We thought we were really privileged to be taught by professors.


Ed taught at Dartmouth in the early part of his career. For any of you who have some interesting recollections of your early days at Dartmouth, please email or call me for the next column, due in December.


At this juncture I have the sad duty to report the loss of Huntly Allison and Fred Ellwood Huntley.


—Leo F. Caproni Jr., 370 East 76 St., Apt. A 406, New York City, NY 10021; (212) 988-6012; (212) 988-6715 (fax); caproni@aol.com