Class Note 1993
Issue
Jul - Aug 2018
Hi, everyone! Currently the grass is just starting to turn green here in New Hampshire. In the spirit of summer term, when this issue hits, I solicited remembrances of that special sophomore season.
Taking two Tuesday and Thursday classes for long weekends, finding creative ways to spend time outdoors, and searching for air conditioning on campus were big themes.
Andrea Greer said she took two classes, Tuesday and Thursday, one on Arthurian romance and one on Dante’s Inferno. On days off she’d take four- and five-hour rambles all over town, often out toward Lyme or Etna, New Hampshire. “It seems like no summer could ever be that decadent.”
Annie Egerton also opted for four-day weekends. One of her classes was “Films of the ’80s,” which allowed her to spend half of her educational summer sitting in the Hop theater with A/C and smuggled-in popcorn. Unfortunately, her second class was “Methods and Theory of Literary Criticism,” which single-handedly put a damper on her planned decadence.
Jeff Middents took three classes. One of them was the “Films of the ’80s” with Annie, because he says, “it was air conditioned, a good number of my friends were taking it, and I really just wanted a relatively easy class (with two other major courses that summer) where I could maybe write about Beetlejuice.”
But never underestimate the power of a fun film class. While Jeff says it was the only film class he formally took at Dartmouth, it changed his life. “I joined Dartmouth Film Society that summer and dove head-first into its activities, which led to me running DFS the year after graduation. And now I am a professor who teaches and studies film.”
Beth Krakower took electronic music and practically never left the radio station so she could be in air conditioning.
Jeannie Chang Bell took minerology that summer, and spent lots of time swimming or tubing in the river. I remember a few times sunbathing near the docks with friends and meeting some members of the U.S. Olympic men’s crew team who were training there.
Brock Wilson remembers a day trip with friends to “the copper mines” somewhere in Vermont. He said most jumped and some dove a harrowing 70 feet to the water. He wrote, “My one dive from that height drove my outstretched fists into my own face, giving me two black eyes. I may have pics somewhere.”
Julia Whitworth remembers hiking Mount Moosilauke on the 4th of July at night to look down at the fireworks in all the small towns around it. Veree Hawkins Brown remembers strawberry picking.
Betsy Barth Marantz remembers celebrating her birthday by baking cupcakes for her religion seminar. Unfortunately, her professor visiting from Scotland had never heard of this tradition, so the cupcakes were consumed after class.
And finally, Roberta Christina Di Giorgio said she left Sophomore Summer two weeks into term “due to the onset of a very horrible autoimmune disease that since changed my life.” She wrote, “Deb Bernstein was my roommate when my parents scooped me up to be hospitalized. I am most grateful to this day for the steadfast support of my friends—in particular, Deb—that summer and as I struggled through my last two years at Dartmouth in and out of hospitals and going through crazy treatments. These are friends for life. I wish I had been there Sophomore Summer!”
Wishing everyone a happy, healthy summer with fun and safe outdoor activities, and maybe some A/C if it gets too hot!
—Suzanne Spencer Rendahl, 224 Route 120, Plainfield, NH 03781; suzanne.spencer.rendahl@gmail.com
Taking two Tuesday and Thursday classes for long weekends, finding creative ways to spend time outdoors, and searching for air conditioning on campus were big themes.
Andrea Greer said she took two classes, Tuesday and Thursday, one on Arthurian romance and one on Dante’s Inferno. On days off she’d take four- and five-hour rambles all over town, often out toward Lyme or Etna, New Hampshire. “It seems like no summer could ever be that decadent.”
Annie Egerton also opted for four-day weekends. One of her classes was “Films of the ’80s,” which allowed her to spend half of her educational summer sitting in the Hop theater with A/C and smuggled-in popcorn. Unfortunately, her second class was “Methods and Theory of Literary Criticism,” which single-handedly put a damper on her planned decadence.
Jeff Middents took three classes. One of them was the “Films of the ’80s” with Annie, because he says, “it was air conditioned, a good number of my friends were taking it, and I really just wanted a relatively easy class (with two other major courses that summer) where I could maybe write about Beetlejuice.”
But never underestimate the power of a fun film class. While Jeff says it was the only film class he formally took at Dartmouth, it changed his life. “I joined Dartmouth Film Society that summer and dove head-first into its activities, which led to me running DFS the year after graduation. And now I am a professor who teaches and studies film.”
Beth Krakower took electronic music and practically never left the radio station so she could be in air conditioning.
Jeannie Chang Bell took minerology that summer, and spent lots of time swimming or tubing in the river. I remember a few times sunbathing near the docks with friends and meeting some members of the U.S. Olympic men’s crew team who were training there.
Brock Wilson remembers a day trip with friends to “the copper mines” somewhere in Vermont. He said most jumped and some dove a harrowing 70 feet to the water. He wrote, “My one dive from that height drove my outstretched fists into my own face, giving me two black eyes. I may have pics somewhere.”
Julia Whitworth remembers hiking Mount Moosilauke on the 4th of July at night to look down at the fireworks in all the small towns around it. Veree Hawkins Brown remembers strawberry picking.
Betsy Barth Marantz remembers celebrating her birthday by baking cupcakes for her religion seminar. Unfortunately, her professor visiting from Scotland had never heard of this tradition, so the cupcakes were consumed after class.
And finally, Roberta Christina Di Giorgio said she left Sophomore Summer two weeks into term “due to the onset of a very horrible autoimmune disease that since changed my life.” She wrote, “Deb Bernstein was my roommate when my parents scooped me up to be hospitalized. I am most grateful to this day for the steadfast support of my friends—in particular, Deb—that summer and as I struggled through my last two years at Dartmouth in and out of hospitals and going through crazy treatments. These are friends for life. I wish I had been there Sophomore Summer!”
Wishing everyone a happy, healthy summer with fun and safe outdoor activities, and maybe some A/C if it gets too hot!
—Suzanne Spencer Rendahl, 224 Route 120, Plainfield, NH 03781; suzanne.spencer.rendahl@gmail.com