1987

As part of the magazine's tribute to Dartmouth's favorite places, I give you some of our class's highlights (I'll keep my remarks to a minimum).

John Youle: "Overall favorite was the lawn in front of Dartmouth Hall after spring break, when the snow had melted and the mud had been grown over. A great place to balance work and play. It was typically peaceful enough to be able to focus on reading for 'Oceans, Rocks or Stars' (I was definitely not premed) and the gentle slope made it a comfortable reading spot. At the same time, the hourly spill from the neighboring classroom buildings ensured regular social breaks."

Peter Southam: "One of my other favorite places was the shop facility in the basement of the Hopkins Center. The wood shop is an amazing place (although I did not do a huge amount of work there), and the jewelry studio was also such a great place to work. I made Sarah's (Bayard '87) engagement ring there, and it was a great experience. I have not dabbled in jewelry since, but we are still married. I do use the wood shop skills as often as possible building our house or working on other projects which come along."

Robin Brach: "I have a richly textured memory of sitting on that piece of sculpture that doubled as a swing in front of the English library on a December night during freshman year. I sat there often late at night after leaving the library, but I remember one night in particular. Walking back across campus to our dorms (Mid-Fayer and Richardson), classmate and friend Rob VanSciver and I stopped to play on the swing, gaze at the clear night sky and revel in the hush of the silent night. My then-18-year-old self tended to melancholy in such moments of beauty. I wanted my life to speak a poem. Rob, however, kept his feet on the ground, and that night on the swing he refused to let me revel in my sadness. He found true and immediate beauty in the sky, but he relished best the moment of human contact in the midst of what I wanted only to see as a sublime experience.The conversation between us that night on the swing brought me back to earth at its best, even as a shooting star crossed overhead. As you know, Rob VanSciver died of leukemia in August of the following year, a disease he had battled throughout high school. That night on the swing, I did not yet know of Robs illness; he would not come out of remission until March. After his death, his grounding words about living fully in the moment had even more depth as I began to understand the cause and need for such early wisdom. Yet while I have always remembered that evening on the swing with deep appreciation, I was even more thankful in the spring of 1999, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Living firmly on the ground even while I dared to dream of the future became a daily struggle as I myself underwent surgery, chemo and radiation. To simultaneously push and ride the swing—that's our challenge every day; it just becomes so much more apparent in times of crisis. Rob understood that balance, and I, now through my treatment and moving on with life, am beginning to as well."

Abdhish R. Bhavsar, M.D.: "We used to love to hang out on the fire escape ladder at Russel Sage, especially during the warm evenings. It was a great social gathering during the evenings. Those of us who had rooms on the end of the building took advantage of easy access to our rooms by jumping up the ladder and into our rooms."

Christine Wichers: "The top room in Baker Library. You know, the place where you could sink into an overstuffed chair, put a plank of wood over the arms of the chair, rest your textbook on the wood (so as to look studious) and then fall fast asleep."

If Christine hadn't written the last one, I would have.

These are only partial responses, edited for space (apologies to my classmates). For full ones, see our Web page: www.alum.dartmouth.org/classes/87/. Also vote on possible books for our online book group. And e-mail me your new address just to say hi or provide some news.

2814 Kensington Ave., #16,Richmond, VA 23284; jtsnyk@yahoo.com