We asked classmates to tell us why they attend reunion. Here are some of the responses we received…
Dan Frech ‘85 writes:
Dartmouth Reunion Class of 85: What or Why to Go to It?
It took a little while to decide to sign up for the reunion. Why? What did I want to do there or expect to get out of it?
I want to see again the landscape of the Northeast, especially up farther north, in New England. The area around Dartmouth is the CT River Valley with its deciduous trees, rocks, and forests. It is dry and crisp in the fall, and can be just bitterly cold in the winter. We have resided in the upper left corner of the USA for 30 years. That’s the Pacific NW. We often vacation basically near Canada on an island on an inland sea between Vancouver Island and Washington (Pictures below). Everything is different here. We have a maritime-moderated climate (it rarely snows here or maybe 1X per year) and are surrounded by large Douglas Fir trees. We have fog and continual light rain in winter which eventually breaks to a summer. June is colder than September, and we have what is called “Indian Summer” where the fall may be really balmy into October. There aren’t as many old traditions or buildings that are hundreds of years old, like Dartmouth Hall or Baker Tower … our college was founded in 1769 and has tradition.
I hope to uncover a little about how people from our class have lived after college, and what they ended up doing. The time we had as UG’s was really short, in the big picture. We have been “roaming the girdled earth” for 10 times longer than we were actually UG students at this college. When I was at Dartmouth, I met so many people with incipient promise and great aptitude during the years 1981-1985. But it was a challenge knowing my class afterward… it seemed almost cut off at the point of graduation. I will be thrilled to hear about all news and not just the highlights, but the complexity of life. That means, their families, what their children like to do, the ways people changed jobs, moved around, studied at other colleges, took on new challenges, did great outdoor adventures or even got injured and recovered – all of that. I don’t know. for example. what happened with many of the great cast of characters from our French LSA (Blois) in Winter 1983, where I got to know several in our small (~24 people) group. It was
harder to keep in touch once we finished, unless you really lived closer, or vacationed together, or took the time for written correspondence. Social Media applications have helped me find a few classmates, and the way we know each other, through give-and-take by a few messages – that will be greatly improved and made less virtual and more personal by actually meeting several of them at our reunion.
I took tours of colleges (probably as many of you did) during the “Inspection” process when our son at end of HS in 2018 (he’s 25 now and at UT Austin in PhD program) visited many schools, including Dartmouth. We often went on trips during school vacations. There wasn’t much college nostalgia during those trips, even though the campuses still looked spectacular, and the admissions committees did great, inspiring presentations. Yet, walking around the grounds … it seemed hollow because the students weren’t there (during break), or if they were, they were so much younger, it wasn’t like you could just transport yourself back to the good old days. Our reunion won’t be like this. There will be events/mixers/brunches, and even 60 yr old people (myself included) living in the dorms. The students of our class will be back to invigorate the campus with our spirit (there are >300 registered reunion guests – I checked), and that’s going to make our reunion worth it!
Chris Collimore, ‘85 writes: Financially, I had to pick between the June reunion and mini reunion at Homecoming. So I really had to think about what was important to me. I have a lot of school spirit, but also a lot of class spirit. Like most Dartmouth classes, our class had strong comradery. It always felt like a tight-knit group, from day-one. We shared an exciting, important, pivotal time in our lives, and formed a bond that lasts to today and should last all our lives. Homecoming is my favorite time to be on campus (the Fall colors, that “collegey” feel, the energy on campus, the big game,….) and I haven’t been on campus in the Fall since 1990, but when I asked around and found out that very few 85s go to the Homecoming mini-reunion, it became an easy decision to go to the big June reunion. It just seems like we should get together every so often, and the 25 year gap between the 25th reunion and the 50th seemed like to long to go without seeing all you guys.
Here is something else for you: the day I decided to go to the June reunion, I ate dinner at a restaurant and they played a song called “1985” on the sound system. It is by a group called Bowling for Soup. You should check it out on Youtube. It should be our theme song for the reunion!
Nancy Kopans, ‘85 writes:
What Reunion Means to Me
A chance to reconnect, and connect anew. And canoe. And share about life’s chapters. We were so young. How could we fathom what was to come?
Claudia Broekker Egger, ‘85 writes: I live pretty far from New England (El Paso, TX) and until recently, didn’t have a lot of chances to reconnect with classmates. Reunions have been the perfect excuse to revisit campus and to catch up with old friends.
Beth Parish ‘85 writes: Last reunion (our 30th) – Lori Bamburger and I snuck away and had a cocktail at Molly’s and she shared all these wonderful things about her daughter whom she had adopted.
I love walking around campus, at night, caught in memories – and sometimes say, wow, I cannot believe I got to go to school here :)
I am really most looking forward to Thursday night dinner on Baker lawn … if that is all I get to experience, then I am good …
