Chris, Next time you come up this way to go to Dartmouth you simply MUST
stop by and at least say Hi. Do you realize I could, most likely, hear
your car going by on I-91, we're that close? We are 11/2 mi from exit 3 in
Vt.
Baker library is one of my favorite buildings. Not as great as Ira Allen
Chapel at UVM, but close. BTW UVM is now having a big stink as they have
cut down a bunch of crab apple trees on their front lawn to make way for
having their graduation there next spring. It is the 200th graduation and
the higher-ups wanted to move graduation to the front lawn where it used to
be held. The trees were given in memory of graduates that had died and
some families are up in arms. Well, guess they can forget any more gifts
from those families.
And that's the news from the hinterlands. Ruth
At 12:44 AM -0400 9/17/03, Met History wrote:
>MOTHER and FATHER drove BOY up to Dartmouth today. Felt peaceful, not torn,
>arriving in the happy accidents of freshmen and their parents on the 1st day:
> what next? where's this? where's that? [parents:] when should I leave?
>is this really IT?
>
>Yes, it really was IT, but before then we waited in various lines with BOY,
>met other parents, including one of Cute Girl from Boise, with whom he had
>been
>on prior hiking trip. In course of conversation, BOY said to mother,
>jocularly, "Well, I appear to be free of infectious diseases." Cute
>Girl's Mother
>was not reassured.
>
>Dartmouth campus is organized around a village green, with commerce on one
>side, ancient early 19th C meeting house type buildings, white painted
>brick on
>one side (intimidating, like a girlfriend's mother who doesn't approve of
>you); giga-colonial George F. Baker library on another side (like
>Independence
>Hall x3); and neat Beaux-Arts/colonial admin and dorm buildings on the fourth
>side. Campus was subject to scorched-earth Georgizing 1920-date, erasing (or
>eviscerating) muscular Victorian campus architecture seen in old photos.
>Campus took itself very seriously: if IIT is very-serious international
>style,
>Dartmouth is superserious colonial. Nice colonial, often scrumptiously
>executed,
>but still very-serious.
>
>BOY's dorm is named "French" far out on the banks of the Connecticut River.
>Building is 1950's mottled brick with alternating windows, one of several in
>basic Y-plan, 4 stories. Buildings' basic form is modernist, but varied
>brick
>coloring and undulating landscape makes them sort of Georgian. Alvar Aalto
>meets William Lawrence Bottomley. Nice. Homey. BOY (hereafter called
>YOUNG MAN) has somehow snagged supervisor's room, larger, view of river,
>quiet,
>but (absolute best best best bonus) can hear freight trains from across
>river.
> Now tortured by second thought, YOUNG MAN, after being discouraged by old
>farts from rafting down Mississippi, then decided he wanted to hobo around on
>trains. MOTHER told him he would get one of his handsome feet cut off. YM
>stopped talking about it, now suspicion returns, maybe it just went
>underground,
>probably he will jump a freight train for Creative Writing. (Check: foot
>amputation covered by health plan?)
>
>Diversity report: another YOUNG MAN, on floor above, is from Hanoi.
>
>Bravery report: three freshman reported existing nicknames: Clucky,
>T-Bomb, and Giggles.
>
>Went over to White River Junction in search of used furniture (not antiques).
> Advised YOUNG MAN that critical ingredient in finding used furniture vendors
>was locating town with abundant ground floor space going begging. Noted, in
>this town, massage therapist occupying corner office on best intersection.
>YOUNG MAN went with MOTHER to lampshade store. YM reported that owner just
>makes lampshades, and was completely happy with what he was doing, didn't
>care if
>they bought anything or not. Felt that YM had reached 5th circle of true
>enlightenment but then also thought hopes of repayment for UK telephone bill
>might be dimming just a few watts.
>
>Also noted that Dartmouth does not charge for long distance telephones -
>except overseas long distance.
>
>YM did not return to campus with necessary comfortable chair, but, in flea
>market, found 1950's golf bag (battered tag: "Registered with
>Schenectady Golf
>Course") with matched Sam Snead clubs set in ancient, rickety pull cart. $5.
>YM has vision, bought same (what about my change?) rolled to dorm past fancy
>bmws, volvos, suvs, etc., will look pretty good going out on village green and
>chipping balls through the buff frisbee guys. (Sam Snead = babe magnet?)
>
>On way back to NYC, watched hang gliders catching the lift on the sunset face
>of Mt. Tom (near Holyoke, from which Thomas Cole painted "The Ox-Bow") got
>lost in a few delicious mid-Mass mill towns, including one where giant
>flag was
>suspended over a shimmering reservoir, rippling slightly in the soft wind, as
>was the water in which it was reflected. FATHER and MOTHER had picnic on the
>banks and thought about how fast two decades go by.
>
>Near Danbury, a vision in the dark: brown flash, impossibly fast through
>impossibly fast triple-lane I-84, bushy tail, too big for a fox, a coyote,
>made
>it across, grace a dieu.
>
>Best to all, Christopher
>
>--
>To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
>uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
><http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
--
Ruth Barton
[log in to unmask]
Dummerston, VT
--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
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