May 2012 - Dartmouth Class of 1981

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CLASS OF 1981
MAY 2012 NEWSLETTER
2011 Class of the Year, 2011 Newsletter Editors of the Year. ‘Nuff said.
Presidents’ Message: Good News!
Hello, ‘81s!
We hope this newsletter finds you in good
health and good weather. Julie and I are
excited to report on a couple of major items
recently announced by Alumni Relations:
First, THE RETURN OF THE CLUSTERED
(THREE-CLASS) REUNION!!! I have a very
good friend in the class of ‘80 who once
said to me in an e-mail: “the thought of
never being together again at a Dartmouth
reunion causes me a certain amount of existential angst”. Well, those of us who share
that sentiment can wipe that angst away!
Here is a direct quote from Martha Beattie
More class activities!
‘76, Vice President of Alumni Relations:
“I am very pleased to announce that starting in 2013 clustered
reunions will be reintroduced for the 35th, 40th and 45th reunions. The first clustered reunion will be the 45th in 2013
(Classes of 1968 and 1969), followed by
the 40th in 2014 (Classes of 1973, 1974
and 1975) and the 35th in 2015 (Classes
of 1979, 1980 and 1981). The following
reunions will continue to be held for individual classes: 5th, 25th, 30th, 50th, 55th,
60th, 65th, 70th and 75th.”
are tracked separately and used exclusively for class projects.)
BY FAR, the largest single expense for any class has been the annual payment to the College for the Alumni Magazine, which is
based on the number of magazines the class
sends out. A number of classes elected in recent years to simply not send the magazine
to its classmates who failed to pay dues. In
the case of our own class, we never took this
draconian step even though only 40-45% of
us pay dues annually. THE POSITIVE EFFECT
ON THE ‘81 CLASS TREASURY OF NO LONGER
HAVING TO PAY FOR THE MAGAZINE WILL BE
SIGNIFICANT!!! Julie and I have both served
our class as treasurer in prior years, and the
first thought we both had upon learning this
news was, “Wow, we will be able to fund
MORE class projects, more mini-reunions
and more of any type of activity that helps
to bring us together as a class.” This news is
so fresh that we haven’t yet met as an executive committee to
review the impact and the opportunities, but it is a relief to no
longer have to concern ourselves anymore with the ever-rising
cost of supporting distribution of the DAM. What this also
means, though, is that continuing contributions to the Dartmouth College Fund are a
key factor in keeping this new arrangement
afloat: the DCF will be funding the DAM going
forward.
We will no doubt have a rollicking good
time together in the summer of 2015! Mark
your calendars now!
Second, Alumni Relations has agreed that
the funding for the Dartmouth Alumni
Magazine (DAM) will no longer have to be
sourced from individual class treasuries.
Without boring you too much with the finer
points of how individual class finances
Bigger reunions!
work, we collect annual dues from classmates each and every year to support the DAM, mini-reunion activities, class newsletters, and other administrative items. (Some
of you also make optional project contributions. Those donations
www.alum.dartmouth.org/classes/81
These are both huge items that have been
under discussion by the Alumni Council, the
classes, and the clubs for as long as I can
remember. It’s just a thrill that we’ve gotten
both pieces of news within the same couple of
weeks.
Enjoy the summer season. More from us to
come soon.
--Molly and Julie
Class of ‘81 Reading List
by Abner Oakes
I asked a few classmates to talk about
their most memorable reading moment.
What was the book that, for whatever reason, changed them as readers, maybe even
as people?
For me that book
was Stephen King’s
Pet Sematary. I was
teaching middle
school in Michigan,
boring myself reading
Thomas Hardy and
other teaching-related texts. I felt that everything I read had
to have “value.” A greater good. A friend
then gave me King’s novel, and I read it
over a night - yeah, not a good idea with
King - and could not believe that reading could be so much fun. I had forgotten
my middle school reading years, when I
devoured science fiction (Dune, Ringworld,
The Andromeda Strain), and was glad that
King and that book shocked me back to
those years, freed me up - showed me that
reading did not always need to be healthy,
soul-enriching, that it could be just a
great scream ride on a roller coaster.
When I asked Chris Halloran, here’s what
he wrote back: “Hard to pick just one but
near the top of the list would be Thomas
Merton’s autobiography, The Seven Storey
Mountain, which I read after reading
(and loving) Merton’s Zen and the Birds
of Appetite for a Joe Massey government
class as a senior at Dartmouth. My late
teens and early twenties were a time of
spiritual crisis for me and reading about
Merton’s quest to understand his faith and
then his subsequent
vocation as a priest
and monk influenced
me profoundly as I
struggled to figure
out what it means to
be religious. Reading
about the ‘dark
MAY 2012 NEWSLETTER
night of the soul’ experienced by Merton
as he progressed toward the full realization of his faith helped me immeasurably
as I coped with long periods of doubt and
fear.”
For my senior
year roomie, Mike
Steinharter, it was
Ayn Rand, either
Fountainhead or Atlas
Shrugged. “I read ‘em
both,” Mike told me,
“back to back, I think,
so I forget which one
I read first. Until then I had been reading
mostly sci fi - Ray Bradbury, Dune, and the
like. Something about Ayn Rand just captured my imagination and stayed with me
for a long time - so long that I can even
remember snippets of it today, so many
years later. It wasn’t her politics - I didn’t
know anything about that. Maybe I need
to re-read them!”
For Jim Pearson, the book was A.S. Byatt’s
Possession. Jim had this to say: “The song
“Possession” by Sarah McLachlan was
popular at the time, and so I picked up
the book from the Richmond, VA, library
where I was working
with my first ‘fulltime on-the-road’
consulting client. I
thought that perhaps
the book inspired the
song.
“I was wrong about
the song’s inspiration but right to pick up the book. Layered
writing, intricately drawn scenes and
characters, deep human emotion, and vocabulary to rip your mind from whatever
ails you. Thus began my search for novels
to accompany work weeks while I lived
away from home. It also inspired the idea
of learning from native novelists the character and passions of my clients (e.g.,
Naguib Mafouz for Egypt, Ryu Murakami
for Japan, Felix Timmermans for Belgium,
Saul Bellow for Chicago).”
Doug Schwarz
wrote this: “The
book I’d single out
is Simple Justice by
Richard Kluger. I
read it as a young
lawyer, and its story
of the strategic
use of the courts
by the lawyers of
the NAACP and the Legal Defense Fund to
integrate the fundamental institutions of
American life is fascinating, instructive,
and inspiring. It showed me that a group
of outstanding lawyers could make a positive impact on their society, perhaps even
on the world.”
And lastly here’s from
classmate Angela
Nesbitt: “I could not
possibly identify which
was my most memorable reading moment
or even my top 12. I
can say that I am currently reading a book
that is changing the way I perceive reality: The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
by Sogyal Rinpoche. He is a master Tibetan
Buddhist spiritual leader and wrote the
book so that Westerners could better understand Tibetan Buddhism. I have no idea
why I picked up the book and for the first
few days could not understand why I kept
reading a few pages before falling asleep.
And then I was hooked. Although I am not
a Buddhist, the book is giving me access
to some of the teachings within my own
faith tradition that were heretofore inaccessible to me. The author is giving me a
structure to look at death that is having
the curious effect of allowing me to be
more alive. It also helped prepare me for
the call this weekend to comfort a friend
who suddenly contracted a fatal infection
and died within 48 hours. The pain of loss
is no less but the fear is diminished and
I was better able to be present as his life
ebbed away. Sogyal Rinpoche is giving me
access to the some of the secrets to flourish and be more alive.”
Page 2
1981 Class Officers
Co-President
Julie Koeninger
[email protected]
Co-President
Molly Sundberg Van Metre
[email protected]
Vice President
Andrew Lewin
[email protected]
Secretary
Robert Goldbloom
[email protected]
Secretary
Brian Cusack
[email protected]
Treasurer
George Alexakos
[email protected]
Rachel Kenzie King was recently profiled in
The Scientist in an article entitled “Female
Frontrunners,” which focused on women
who have excelled as biotech industry leaders. Rachel, who majored in French and got
an MBA at Harvard, is the founder and CEO
of GlycoMimetics, “a company focused on
developing small-molecule
drugs for rare diseases.” She
liked science and considered
going to medical school,
but instead opted for business school. Her interest
in science was re-ignited
when at Bain and Company,
where she became involved
in a project with a biotech
company. She went on to
become part of the senior
Rachel Kenzie King
Newsletter Editor
Pat Berry
[email protected]
Jeff Gundlach: Forbes Feature
Newsletter Editor
Lynne Gaudet
[email protected]
Jeff Gundlach was profiled in the Money &
Investments section of the February 13 issue of Forbes Magazine this winter. Having
known Jeff since our freshman year on the
first floor of Hitchcock, it
came as no surprise to me
that he’s using his intellect
and “a thorough understanding of mathematics” to guide
his portfolio management
at DoubleLine Capital, the
investment firm, which he
founded in 2009. The article
briefly describes the interesting path to DoubleLine,
starting with a two-year
Jeff Gundlach
stint in a Ph.D. program in
mathematics at Yale, which he left to play
drums for a rock band in Los Angeles. In
1985, he joined Trust Company of the West,
where he rose to chief investment officer
of the fixed-income manager, which was
purchased by Société Générale in 2001. The
Newsletter Editor
Abner Oakes
[email protected]
Newsletter Editor
Rick Silverman
[email protected]
Webmaster
Will Blanchard
[email protected]
Webmaster
Jim Jankowski
[email protected]
Alumni Council Rep
Mark Davis
[email protected]
Co-Head Agent
Martin Weinstein
[email protected]
Co-Head Agent
Lon Povich
[email protected]
Page 3
Rachel King: The Business of
Biotech
by Rick Silverman
management at Genetic Therapy, Inc. before
founding GlycoMimetics. Quoting from The
Scientist, “The key to her success...has been
attending scientific lectures at the companies
where she has worked, and sitting down with
the scientists afterwards to ask for explanations of concepts she didn’t understand. ‘I’m
not trying to be a scientist,’ she says, ‘but I can
talk about our scientific story.’ Her layman’s
approach helps her translate the company’s
science to investors and
even to trained scientists,
who need a digest of ideas
outside their specialty. ‘I really can’t think of anything
else I would rather do,’ she
says. In addition to the
business and the science,
the promise of helping patients desperate for novel
therapies ‘makes the whole
proposition just incredbly
meaningful.’”
brief description of his departure in 2009
sounds like it has potential for a madefor-TV legal drama. In the end, however,
it appears that he came out on top in his
new firm, where he has been beating the
odds with some unique strategies that have
proved quite successful. My favorite quotation from the article will
resonate with anyone who
has known Jeff through the
years: “A conversation with
Gundlach can be mentally
exhausting. His extreme
confidence and closely
cropped beard give him
a resemblance to Oracle
billionaire Larry Ellison.
He delivers his sometimes
iconoclastic opinions with
a certainty that borders
on contempt for those who disagree.” I’m
strangely transported back to 1978, 109
Hitchcock…To see the entire article, visit
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2012/01/25/recession-scares-doublelinesgundlach-more-than-rising-rates/.
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CLASS OF 1981
www.alum.dartmouth.org/classes/81
FSP (Florida “Study”
Program) at the Breakers:
Classmates Recall Palmetto Bugs,
Water Beds and Fabulous Tans
by Pat Berry
Which would you pick? Days on days of subzero temps, your nostrils freezing as you slog
to class through snow up to your navel? OR
ten weeks at a luxury resort with sunshine,
bikinis, fruity drinks, and beautiful people
everywhere?
Smacks of a trick question, doesn’t it?
Flash back to sophomore year—specifically
winter and spring terms. Dartmouth plans
are in full swing, and friends are abandoning campus for LSA and internships, leaving
the rest of us to ask: What the hell are we
doing here? An off term—especially somewhere tropical—sounded promising. Which
explains why, during snow and mud seasons,
Dartmouth students went in small droves to
work at the Breakers Hotel, a high-society
resort in Palm Beach, Florida. We would wait
tables and keep wretched hours in exchange
for tidy paychecks and the best tans of our
lives.
Pat and Jane on the beach
Back then the human resources office at the
Breakers had, through Career & Employment
Services, a hotline to Dartmouth students,
whose flexi calendars and desire for refuge
from winter’s cold and spring’s mud dovetailed nicely with the resort’s high season.
During each of the first two quarters of every
year, about a dozen students lit out for the
southeastern shores of the Sunshine State,
creating an FSP (Florida “Study” Program) of
MAY 2012 NEWSLETTER
our own. And I daresay our
learning curves were as
upwardly arced as any of
our friends’ in Bourges or
Blois or at Mobil.
Among those taking the
Palm Beach plunge were
classmates Abner Oakes,
Amy Beringer, John
Westerfield, Bob Crowe,
Hat day?
Pam Donovan Gehret,
Chris Halloran, Chris Toll, Jane Alexander and
I. Recently, we shared some of our memories
in “conversations” over Facebook and email.
Common themes emerged: sub-par rental
units in questionable neighborhoods, divebombing palmetto bugs, car troubles, horrid
polyester uniforms, as well as the love-hate
relationships between permanent Breakers
employees and us, the so-called contingents.
Abner Oakes (Winter ’79)
Here’s what I remember in no particular order:
• Arriving in Palm Beach, checking in at the
Breakers, and promptly breaking Westy’s car
as we ran over one of those cement curbs in
the Breakers parking lot.
• That wild party that we had, how we all
slept through our breakfast assignment the
next day, and how we all got demoted to
busboy—and Bob quickly bagged the Breakers
to go work someplace else.
• There was that first place we had, for just
a few days, over in West Palm Beach. We
would catch huge palmetto bugs under water
glasses, creating our own little
zoo.
• My pathetic attempts to
re-connect with my old high
school girlfriend from afar. I
spent a lot of time on the public phone at the 7-Eleven near
our house.
• Didn’t we also go to the
track a few times, to watch
and bet on the trotters?
Bob Crowe (Winter ’79)
The Breakers experience is one
of my favorite topics. Can’t
believe it’s taken over 30
years to tell the story.
• John’s car breaking
down in the first week
was a huge inconvenience
to everybody but Art
[Switchenko], who simply
ran to and from the hotel.
And when we eventually
replaced the car with one
we bought from those
Aussies, it died in one
week. Nice.
• That first place was so bad—worse than
any of our frats. It was in the basement, I
recall, with some flea-bit dog barking nonstop after sunrise right by our window. The
cockroaches were just enormous, too—some
so big they scared Barney [Oldfield] into
sleeping in a dresser drawer.
• Most of us getting demoted back to busboys for missing breakfast was fun. Thought
I had sidestepped the demotion because
I had arranged to be off the next day to
go to the Super Bowl with Mike Leede.
Unfortunately, I forgot I had breakfast duty.
Ouch.
• “I got boofed” was heard every night from
some unlucky guy who was stuck prepping
for the next morning’s buffet.
• The Breakers workforce was interesting—
we never suffered from lack of attention.
• That Abner shared a waterbed with Barney
seemed perfectly normal then.
• Art’s big Florida road race took a turn
when the US National cross-country team
entered at the last moment, nearly kill-
Winter ‘79 “FSP” crew--Check the ‘81 Facebook page to see who
you recognize!
Page 4
ing him. Believe he beat a couple of them
though. Way to go, Art!
• I had such high hopes for the south Florida
experience —think I made it to the beach
four times. Golfed once. But, oh, the memories! What a hilarious time.
Abner
Yes. Barney and I. Water bed. Need not say
anymore.
John “Westy” Westerfield (Winter ’79)
• I remember the waitress from Rocky Point,
North Carolina, who called Green Machines
“those green god damns!” She was sweet on
someone in our group. Who was that?
• I do remember that first apartment with
the awful shag carpet. Didn’t Barney actually sleep in a drawer? I also remember the
real estate agent we went to who demanded
50 bucks to look at her listing and then
promptly said she had nothing and pocketed
the money.
• The whole thing was so hilarious—what a
trip!
The Captains and the Chrises
Abner
The Breakers was my first exposure to gay
culture. I was a naive kid from suburban
Connecticut. I honestly did not know what
gay was. And then there we were at the
Breakers, with Mr. Chris and Mr. Frederick
and Mr. Robert. Mr. Chris took us once to a
gay dance club. I remember dancing to YMCA
with the Dartmouth gang and getting approached by men at the club. Mr. Chris was
our protector. It was wild and scary and fun.
Still have images of the lights, the music,
this great writhing crowd. And so I learned a
few things, I guess. Learned to relax, for one
thing.
Page 5
Westy
Ah, Mr. Chris! That Hungarian dictator!
Amy Beringer (Winter ’79)
• Pam [Donovan Gehret] and I lived in a twobedroom apartment with Leslie Maglathlin
Shula, Beth Shapiro and Julie Whitney.
• I remember washing those ugly uniforms
and hanging them out on the line behind the
house. We hated the little white caps and
would occasionally forget them and get in
trouble.
•I remember getting in trouble a lot—like the
night we all went to a late night party and
then a good percentage of the Dartmouth
group called in sick the next morning and
were promptly demoted.
• On our last night we strung together everyone’s hated white waitress shoes in a
long garland which we hung over the famous
statue of Henry Flagler (founder of Palm
Beach)!
• We laughed a lot about the fussy guests
and some of the crazy people on the staff.
We also cried occasionally—at least I did, in
the linen room at least once, when the pressure got to be too much.
• Most of the memories are good: discos
in Palm Beach, hanging out together at the
beach, spring break in Fort Lauderdale after
we quit in mid-March.
One of the two cars purchased for FSP
that hair?) with Patrick and Frederick in the
dining room.
• But I wish I had a picture of the two of
us on the beach trying to memorize the label of a Budweiser can. “This is the famous
Budweiser beer....” Chris was always a better
student than I was, so he probably still has it
memorized.
Jane Alexander (Spring ’79)
Here’s what comes to mind right away:
• I remember polishing glasses while Captain
Frederick quizzed us on the evening’s menu.
I still remember him saying haughtily, “Miss
Alexander can you tell the group what is in
BERNAAAAAISSSE sauce?” (Egg yolks, tarragon and lemon is what I remember, but maybe John Sconzo would like to correct me.)
• We were the Ivy League amateurs that
Frederick had to tolerate. He knew that by
the time he got us broken in we’d be heading
back to Dartmouth to tell the next crop of
silver-spooned amateurs to head south.
• The fish cook who got so annoyed when
I brought a disgruntled customer’s snapper
back because it wasn’t as advertised. He took
one look at it, spat on it, and told me to tell
the customer that he was sorry he forgot the
spit.
• This same fish cook was of keen interest
to Pat for a while. Since Pat has editorial
license I doubt Pat will print this. Triple dog
dare you, Pat. [I believe you’re
thinking of the assistant fish cook.
And we’ll leave it at that. —ed.]
•Hawaiian Tropcs SPF 4 suntan
lotion. I’m reminded of this every time I go to see Dr. Ide (my
Dartmouth dermatologist).
• The horrible uniforms we had to
wear. Orange! Not exactly my color
Pam Donovan Gehret (Winter ’79)
• It was the height of the disco era, and
there were lots of good times. I remember
dancing at O’Hara’s and drinking rum and
Tab—and laughing a lot.
• Beth and Leslie worked room service while
the rest of us were in the main dining room. I
remember being upset that I had to start as a
roll girl while everyone else was a waiter, but
eventually I got the upgrade.
• I do recall Amy crying in the
linen room. I think we all had
our time in there.
Chris “Hollywood” Halloran
(Spring ’79)
• I have one photo of a deeply
tanned Chris Toll and a longhaired me (what was up with Jane on a precious day off
Breakers continued on Page 7
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CLASS OF 1981
www.alum.dartmouth.org/classes/81
Elliott Davis Down on the Farm
Elliott Davis and his family are farming in
Connecticut. They began with a flock of
chickens, added sheep and bees, and now
are making maple syrup from the trees
on their property. Elliott was interviewed
about their New Leaf Farm by Mary Beth
Lawlor, editor of Mommy Poppins CT, an
online resource that curates the best of
Connecticut for families (check it out at
http://connecticut.mommypoppins.com).
Below is a reprint of that interview – and
see here, http://innerfarmer.wordpress.
com/, for Elliott’s blog. Elliott has kept
his day job for now, as Managing General
Partner of Next Wave Funds, http://www.
nextwavefunds.com/, a venture capital
fund that invests in Europe.
What were you before becoming interested in having a mini-farm on your
property and what inspired you to do
so? Both of us work at full time jobs;
however, it has been a lifelong passion to
connect more with our land and with our
food, which inspired us to find our “inner
farmers.”
What is living and growing on your land
right now? Two years ago, we started with
an assortment of 25 heritage chickens that
we are raising organically. We then established a flock of Icelandic sheep. This year
we started making maple syrup from our
own trees and have also started raising
honeybees and will plant 50 organic oldworld cider apple trees.
Are the kids into it and do they help
out with the care-taking? Our kids have
enthusiastically taken to these projects
– from caring for the animals which encompass many chores, to the marketing of
the products. They are learning the value
of hard work and making their own money.
Their responsibilities include gathering
and delivering the eggs, feeding the sheep,
boiling and bottling syrup, and having to
discuss the benefits of our products and
making change with customers.
MAY 2012 NEWSLETTER
relying on caretakers. We’ve done much to
“automate” the chores – putting in permanent waterers, automatic coop doors,
etc., and have found some very competent
caretakers, but it is still in the back of
your mind when traveling that everything
is OK.
Elliott Davis
Do you eat your animals? Do you sell
anything? If so, what? Yes, we sell what
we make as we want this to be a selfsustaining farm, which will take time.
The discipline of trying to figure out the
markets differentiates having pets from
farm animals. Our eggs come in assorted
colors from pale pink to blue and brick
red. Maple syrup comes in various grades
and wool can be sold as fleeces for hand
spinning or processed as felt or knitting
yarn. Down the road we’ll have honey
and hard and sweet cider. As our flock of
sheep expands, we hope to sell breeding
stock and envision renting the flock out
for environmentally friendly land clearing
as the sheep eat poison ivy, multiflora rose
and all other manner of invasive plants in
places that are too hard to bush hog or
too expensive to clear by hand.
What’s your favorite thing about living
this lifestyle? Farming in our small way
has opened our eyes to the wonders of nature in our backyard. We see the weather
in a new way – when will the sap start
to rise, how is the pasture growing, what
flowers are blooming. Animals have personalities and can confound and delight in
equal measure. It is just short of amazing
to see baby chicks arrive one inch tall in
the mail and then a few months later be
collecting dozens of eggs a week. Shearing
sheep reminds you of the “original” fleece.
Seeing the kids sit at sunset on the fence
and say this is better than the Nature
Channel – makes it all worth it.
What’s your least favorite thing? Be
honest. Worrying about being away and
Anything else family or kid related that
you want to mention? Children will gravitate towards different parts of the farming
experience. Our daughter is really the “animal whisperer” and takes great interest in
their well-being; our son is more of the
businessman and thinks of how to price
and sell the end product. They split the
chores according to age and ability, but
the extra efforts fall along natural lines of
interest.
Any advice you’d give to someone
contemplating taking the leap? Start
small and study up before jumping in to
anything. It is amazing how you will find
a whole new world of people that are
around the area that will be expert in
whatever you choose to pursue. Read up –
old books and the internet are equally rich
in advice. Join the relevant groups before
starting as there is a wealth of information, advice, breeders, sources for supplies,
etc. that can jump start your search. Scale
your business to how much land you have
and what type of barns or outbuildings are
available. Answer some basic questions: Do
you travel frequently? Are you able to do
heavy work or not? There is a big difference from herding 2000 pound cows and
raising rabbits. Protect your investment.
Plan for the worst as there are many wild
animals that will want to eat your animals
or get in your garden. Invest the time,
energy and thought up front to get plants
and animals that will thrive in our climate
and with the amount of care you can give
them. Despite all the reasons not to do
something, at the end of the day, you may
take a leap of faith and be rewarded by
the successes (and failures) which define
farming.
Page 6
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Breakers continued from Page 5
palette, even after my Irish skin had turned a
nice shade of sienna.
• Dinners with Harold and Betty, Pat’s doting grandparents, who rescued us from our
palmetto-infested basement apartment for
an occasional dinner at Hamburger Heaven.
• Alice and Greg. (I believe they were friends
with benefits before the term was even invented.) Alice and Greg were “professional
waiters” at the Breakers. They took us under
their wing to make sure we didn’t act like
the Ivy League morons they knew we really
were. They taught us how the game was
played: How to suck up to the cooks so they
would hustle for you, how to increase your
tips (including the drunken suggestion, from
Greg, that I might try a padded bra), and
how to balance our trays to avert disaster. In
hindsight, we were living the perfect reality
TV show!
• Getting up late one night to take a Tylenol.
I popped the pill in my mouth, filled a glass
with water, and nearly swallowed a palmetto
bug that was swimming in the water glass.
(Those bugs were terrifying!)
‘81s Are Listening...
by Nick Carr
I bought a new turntable last year and have
since been reacquainting myself with the
pleasures of vinyl. Here are some of the records that have been spinning with particular
frequency of late.
Working on a fabulous tan
we slept (illegally) on the beach in sleeping
bags although sleeping on the beach seemed
somewhat less glamorous the next morning.
· One of our favorite pastimes on nights off
was going to one particular bar that had live
music. There was an acoustic guitar duo that
played a bunch of great covers. The ones I
recall in particular are Simon & Garfunkel’s
“The Boxer” and Dylan’s “All Along the
Watchtower.”
· On my very last night at the Breakers there
was a couple who lingered forever at their
table. The restaurant was deserted except
for them, the captain on duty and me. The
captain and I were desperate to leave, and
he suggested that I clear their coffee cups.
When I reached in to take the woman’s cup,
the man grabbed my hand and said, “We’re
not done yet.” I responded, “That’s fine, we’ll
just wait all night.” His face turned bright
red and he yelled, “I want to talk to your supervisor!” I said, “Go get him yourself,” and
I walked back to my station and looked the
other way. The guy was apoplectic. He hollered at the captain for five minutes. I don’t
know that I’m particularly proud of that moment, but it was pretty funny!
· I didn’t own a car in those days and don’t
recall how I got back up north.
But I do know that at Tom
Waterman’s suggestion, on my
way through Georgia I bought
$200 worth of bottle rockets.
I later re-sold them to various
people in Hanover during summer
term, leading to the Great Bottle
Rocket War of ’79 on the Fourth
of July. But that is another story.
Chris Toll (Spring ’79)
· We worked about five dinners and three
breakfasts per week. We always had the
middle of the day off, and so we went to the
beach essentially every day. Hollywood and
I brought a Zonker-like dedication to the
pursuit of the perfect suntan. Among our
tanning postures were the “lat tan” (lying
on one’s side) and the “hair tan” (lying with
head facing sun to achieve maximum hair
bleaching potential).
· We bought a used car for $300. One morning on the way to working the breakfast
shift the sun was blinding and Hollywood
drove into the back of a parked
car. Everyone was fine, but the
car was totaled. So we bought
a replacement $300 car.
· We made a spontaneous road
trip across the state to Sanibel.
God knows why we had any
faith in a $300 vehicle, but
it worked perfectly and we
arrived at Sanibel at 3 a.m.
Mr. Frederick with a
without incident. As planned,
Guided by Voices, Let’s Go Eat the Factory.
This is the first new album in many years from
GBV, one of the greatest, and certainly one of
the weirdest, American rock bands. It takes all
sorts of twists and turns, as it careens from
twinkling power pop to sludgy punk to droning
shoegaze. There’s even a lovely ode to marriage that takes the form of a Gothic reworking of “Auld Lang Syne.” What more could you
want?
The Byrds, The Notorious Byrd Brothers. I never paid enough attention to the Byrds in the
past, but I’m trying to remedy that now. It’s
hard to play druggy psychedelic folk and make
it sound warm and unaffected, but, on this
record in particular, the Byrds pull it off. The
album came out in 1968, but it doesn’t feel at
all dated, and the cover of the Gerry GoffinCarole King number “Goin’ Back” is perfect.
The Zombies, Odessey and Oracle. I was extremely lucky to find a copy of this at a local
record store. The Zombies are mainly known
for their singles “She’s Not There” and “Time
of the Season,” but this 1967 album is one of
the triumphs of the British invasion. The songs
are uniformly terrific, the lyrics are sophisticated and surprising, and Colin Blunstone
reveals himself to be in the top rank of pop
vocalists. The record was overshadowed by the
Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper when it was released, but
I honestly believe that Odessey and Oracle is
the superior work.
The Head and the Heart, The Head and the
Heart. My kids turned me on to this Seattle
band. Their debut album is easy to like – laid
back, melodic, with engaging harmonies and
simple but shimmering production. It’s folkpop that manages to sound new and old at
themusicline10.gif
same time.466×38
The piano
pixels player is really good,
too.
http://www.musicgraphicsgalore.net/graphics/musicline10.
Green Machine
Page 7
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CLASS OF 1981
www.alum.dartmouth.org/classes/81
Mailing Panel
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CLASS OF 1981
MAY 2012 NEWSLETTER
2011 Class of the Year, 2011 Newsletter Editors of the Year. ‘Nuff said.
Jack and Jeff Kemp: Like Father, Like Son
We found this little tidbit on the website www.Lostlettermen.com,
featuring ten father-son quarterback duos, along with the
Manning brothers, Eli and Peyton,
and their father, Archie. “Known
for his tenure as a politician,
[Jack] Kemp served in the administration of former President
George H. W. Bush. He also was a
congressmen for many years. But
Kemp also had a stellar football
career at Occidental College, a
Division III school in Los Angeles. He was a Division III All-American
and also played defensive back, kicker and punter. Jeff Kemp didn’t
play major college football, either. But he had a good enough career
at Dartmouth to earn an NFL
career that lasted from 198191 with four different teams.
The way we see it, it doesn’t
matter where you play college football; it’s how much
impact you have on the game.”
To read about the other nine
pairs, visit http://www.lostlettermen.com/top-10-fatherson-college-qb-duos/.
Jack Kemp in action
www.alum.dartmouth.org/classes/81
Jeff Kemp in action