Class Note 1990

Here is part two of your answers to my question, “What is your favorite memory related to EBAs?” John Aguilar: “My favorite memory, meaning my least favorite, was as a delivery guy for EBAs in late 1990 or early 1991. I left the keys in the ignition on a delivery and some jerkoff drove the delivery car headfirst into Occom Pond. It was one of their crappy Chevettes. I was promptly fired but not before being asked to finish out my shift by washing pots and pans ’til 2 a.m. Still, I loved those chicken sandwiches. Their pizza kinda blew, though. C&A had better ’za.” Tom Thompson: “My favorite EBA’s memory is also one of my top Dartmouth memories: Jane Blum, Karen Behling and I had what I remember as a series of dinners there together. It felt fancy, fun and weirdly decadent and it saved my wobbly soul. Whether it was actually just three dinners over four years or a streak of once-a-months senior spring is lost to the mists of time. But I remember it as a regular thing and it was the best.”

John McBride:“Freshman year I learned about the local pizza options from my undergraduate advisor, Jeff Lazarus ’87. He accurately described EBAs pizza by quoting Steve Martin’s character in The Jerk: ‘This is the best pizza in a cup.’ I have thought about that many times over the years when I get served a soggy pizza.” Andy Affleck: “Convincing a friend who was a delivery person to bring us pizza despite the fact that we were outside the delivery radius (on the Vermont side of the river somewhere) because we were unable to drive, it was snowing and we were starving.” Carol Ann Ling: “I didn’t go to EBAs very often with anyone, primarily because I didn’t like trudging through the tall snowbanks from the River Cluster. So I called for the poor delivery dude to deliver me EBAs pepperoni pizzas during blizzards. Then one night, eating secretly solo in my room lest the frat boys next door catch a whiff of my pizza and demand a slice, I contracted such impressive projectile vomiting that even the exorcist would be impressed. Thereafter, the famous chicken sandwich was my blizzard buster of choice.” Paul Haffner: “My dad was a gifted doctor and writer whose lectures were filled with big words. A few days before he passed away in December 2011, as he was struggling for words, he was able to get out through a few concentrated whispers the word ‘escutcheon.’ I heard it loud and clear and looked at my stepmom with shock. She had not heard the story, so I recounted it for her: I was at Dartmouth in 1988 and apparently had bounced a $5.50 check to EBAs for a chicken sandwich. This caused overdraft charges and embarrassment at the bank for Dad. I learned of this when I retrieved a letter from him from my Hinman Box and read it with George Becker as we walked across campus. In the letter Dad explained to me that this action was unforgivable and I had become ‘a blemish on the family escutcheon of financial prudence.’ Neither George nor I knew what an escutcheon was, but Five Olde Nugget Alley had a dictionary and I turned to the page to read, ‘escutcheon: family shield of honor; synonym, see crest.’ You can bet I took better care of my account statements thereafter! (And you can bet I ordered an EBAs chicken sandwich on that Portuguese muffin to celebrate when I learned I was still solvent!)”

—Rob Crawford, 101 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA, 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com