Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Support independent student journalism. Support independent student journalism. Support independent student journalism.
The Dartmouth
July 12, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Alumni reflect on memories of Green Key and good times

Jim Coleman '46 might have spoken for a majority of Dartmouth alumni when he described his Green Key weekend: "we used to raise hell."

Coleman's account of the weekend is far from irregular. Most alumni developed a few good Green Key yarns during their four years at the College.

For example one member of the class of 1928, who asked his name not be revealed, "borrowed" a Cadillac and drove deep into Vermont.

"There was a big dance party at the Beta [Theta Pi fraternity] house my freshman year, and I didn't feel I knew everyone well. The young ladies were looking down their noses at me. I guess I looked too young," he said.

The then-freshman noticed a Cadillac behind the Beta house.

"I managed to jump start it. I guess you could say I 'stole' it. I drove to a village in Vermont and heard a tremendous band playing. I danced The Charleston with a cute girl I've never seen since and will never see again. Damnit!" he said.

The alumnus said he and the Cadillac managed to wander back to Beta before dawn without attracting the owner's attention.

Jacques Harlow '50 also got in a jam Green Key weekend, narrowly avoiding an air disaster.

"My roommate's date missed the bus back to Skidmore, so we had to fly her back," he said.

On the return trip to Hanover, Harlow noticed something was wrong with the compass. Later in the flight, his roommate, the pilot, admitted they were lost.

"We just flew up the Connecticut then," Harlow said. "Only problem was they didn't turn the lights on."

Meanwhile, the plane's gas tanks were becoming severely depleted.

"We landed, rolled about 100 meters and the engine stopped. We'd run out of gas," he said.

Coleman and his classmates' hell-raising caught up with them the Saturday morning of Green Key Weekend when the standardized Law School Admission Test was first administered.

"We probably did as poorly as any class ever," he said.

Doug Wise '59 said the point of Green Key has always been the "breakout of winter's doldrums weekend. It was a party weekend."

But sometimes the weather just does not cooperate. Wise said the weather was not always conducive for a springtime festival.

"One Green Key we went over to Storr's Pond to go for a swim. I dove in and broke through a thin sheet of ice," he said. "We were determined."

But many alumni have cheerier memories of Storr's Pond. Joel Leavitt '50 said on Green Key weekend he "used to go out to Storr's Pond, picnic, sunbathe, swim and maybe drink a little beer."

But the outdoors does not always take precedence over partying. Julie Keegan Reed '83 said on her most memorable Green Key Weekend the Ledyard Canoe Club canceled its Trip to the Sea "so we wouldn't miss Fog-Cutters at Bones Gate."

"Fog-Cutters" was an outrageous party, Reed explained.

Mary Thompson Renner '82 said she remembers spending Green Key Weekends listening to the bands at Alpha Delta fraternity.

"That's where everyone gathered," she said.

Renner said the Dartmouth of the 1990s the "social life seems a little quieter."

Chris Oaken '93 said although Green Key is "usually the first weekend with beautiful weather," one year Webster Avenue resembled a bog more than a street.

"People didn't care -- they were drinking, dancing and partying. I remember a sea of bobbing heads," he said.

"It started early and went until people were too tired to stand," he said.

Harlow said a common way to finish the weekend in the late 1940s was with "Milk Punch: milk, cinnamon, nutmeg and all the liqueur that was left over."

There are many other Green Key celebratory traditions besides fraternity parties.

Reed said during her first Green Key Weekend, organizations raced chariots drawn by students at the River Cluster.

"The pledges would be pelted with eggs -- they had helmets on," she said. "Three or four would carry the chariot and one would sit in it."

David Orr '57 said the chariot races were held on the Green throughout the 1970s "until the Green got destroyed."

Other traditional Green Key events were tricycle races, tug-of-wars and dances.

Several alumni recall a time before coeducation in 1972 when Dartmouth men would pick up their dates at White River Junction train station. Many of the women were "imported" from nearby women's colleges to meet their dates, quite often for the first time.

Donald Goss '53? remembers a friend who, upon meeting his blind date, immediately dubbed her the 'Beast of the East.'"

Later in the evening Goss's friend auctioned "the Beast" off to several friends in a fraternity basement.

"She really got into it and had a grand old time, dancing and pouring beers on the fellows," he said.

According to Ralph Sautter '55, during Green Key Weekend, "Everyone took a blanket and a young lady and went out into the woods."

But Bill Brooks '51 said his Green Key Weekend involved "nothing notorious. I was engaged at the time."