Over its evolution, the Winter Carnival Weekend has always found students drinking, dancing, relaxing and enjoying the winter weather. But as alumni recall them, the Carnivals of the past were much more enjoyable than those of today.
When the College was still on the semester system, which lasted until 1971, Winter Carnival was held between terms. Free of the worries of classwork, students had more free time to enjoy Carnival
Inviting women to the College, building elaborate snow sculptures, and drinking 400 gallons of beer were typical Carnival Weekend activities, one alumnus said.
The women are coming
Before coeducation in 1972, students invited women to Dartmouth for the weekend to be their dates at Winter Carnival events. James Menter '67 said this transformed the atmosphere of the College.
The men polished their manners in anticipation of the women's arrival, he said.
Students had to worry about transportation problems along with their etiquette.
John Kountz '30 said almost all of the women came by train to Norwich, Vt. where the men who invited them waited excitedly for their arrival.
Roger Wells '53 said travel to Hanover was difficult, especially because many of the women did not own cars.
The arrival of women at the College also created a housing dilemma. Strict regulations prevented women from staying in the rooms of their dates.
"It was forbidden for women to be in men's rooms after 10 at night," Ian MacKinnon '45 said. "A security officer patrolled the dorms and listened for women's voices after that hour."
MacKinnon said men arranged for their dates to say at the Hanover Inn or the Green Lantern Inn, located on East Wheelock Street.
William Lowenthal '42 said most men found the women rooms with families in Hanover but some bypassed the College's policies and sneaked their dates into their rooms.
Some fraternity brothers moved out of their rooms to accommodate the women.
"In the frat houses all the men moved out and we loaded beds in for the women to sleep in," Andrew Allen '63 said. "It must have been uncomfortable for the women because there were something like 60 beds where there were usually 25."
Allen said a group of men stayed in the fraternities after parties to be on "fire-watch." They stayed until seven the next morning to make sure a fire did not break out in the house.
The presence of women on campus shook up other aspects of College life as well.
Menter said some classes were held on Saturday mornings when he was at the College, and many of the women attended class with their dates.
"A professor was lecturing and one of the females asked a question," Menter said. "He was so taken aback that he didn't know how to respond."
Professors were also involved in choosing the Winter Carnival Queen, the woman who served as the figurehead for the events of the weekend.
Menter said the queen contest was not taken too seriously by the men. The women were nominated by their boyfriends and were interviewed by a panel of professors and deans.
The selection of a queen was at times humorous for the men, however. Allen recalled one particularly "sophomoric" incident in the choosing of the queen.
"There was this woman from California -- her name was Carol or Susan -- and her last name was Horny," Allen said. "Everyone thought it was really funny."
The men took their dates to the formals and parties offered over the weekend.
Many students simply enjoyed the company of their dates, taking them to restaurants and for walks down Webster Avenue to look at various fraternities' snow sculptures.
Some, like Wayne French '59, seized Winter Carnival as the opportunity to propose to his wife when they returned after his graduation.
'Hoses coming out of the windows'
Perhaps in an attempt to impress their dates, many men worked for days to create elaborate snow sculptures.
French said all of the residence halls and fraternities created sculptures and entered them in competitions for best design.
Seth Jacoby '90 recalled his extensive work on his residence hall snow sculpture, which took three days and nights to build.
"My feet were soaking wet and the only pair of gloves I had were permanently wet," Jacoby said. "We had hoses coming out of the windows so we could soak the sculpture down."
While Jacoby was at the College, students built the world's largest snowman, a record that stood for only a few months.
During Jacoby's senior year, he said it rained miserably. "It was the saddest sculpture ever," he said. "It was a castle and they had used metal to prop it up, but it rained the whole weekend so it was just pieces of metal sticking out of the ground."
French said sculptures of the past were much more complicated than those of today because students had more free time to build.
Winter Carnival was held between semesters while he was at the College and depending on the exam schedule, students had about four free days to work on the sculptures.
The sculptures created at the time were very involved and many students volunteered in making them, French said.
'Awash with beer'
The time between semesters also meant more time to party for many students.
Menter, a brother in Alpha Delta fraternity, said he and his brothers were particularly proud of the amount they drank over the Winter Carnival Weekend.
He said Moe's Big Wheel, a beer distributor, delivered 400 gallons of beer to AD from the Wednesday to Sunday of Winter Carnival his senior year.
Kountz had a similar experience in the late 1920s.
"I mostly got drunk, I think," he said.
Lisa Copenhaver '77 said fraternity parties, like today, were at the center of all Winter Carnival activities.
She said she and her friends often went to more than one party, making a circle of "frat row" over the course of an evening.
Menter said bands were a big part of the fraternity scene. His house had different bands each night of the weekend. Because the other houses did not have bands on Sunday, everyone came to AD.
A member of Sigma Nu fraternity, Kountz said they had campus bands, including the Barbary Coast, play at their parties.
Allen said the fraternities in the 1960s found rock-and-roll bands from the Boston area to play at the parties.
"If you had a friend in a fraternity with a spectacular rock-and-roll band, you would make a deal that if he let you into his party, you'd let him into yours," Allen said.
"The fraternities were completely awash with beer," James Floyd '75 said.
Floyd described his Carnival weekend as a combination of partying and cross-country skiing.
Suicide six
Outdoor sporting events have always been an integral part of Winter Carnival activities.
Wells, a member of the hockey team, said the hockey games held during Carnival were well attended.
Wells said students in the 1950s also attended skiing events on a jump at the College golf course, a giant slalom at a course near Storr's Pond and downhill skiing at Mount Moosilauke.
A decade earlier, skiing events took place in Woodstock, Vt., at Suicide Six, MacKinnon said.
"They had a rope tow, and that's how you got up the hill," MacKinnon said.
He said the "famous Dartmouth ski jump" was an important part of the winter carnival experience.
Although MacKinnon never managed to actually make the jump, he attempted on several occasions.
"I once climbed to the top and looked down and walked down again," MacKinnon said. "My roommate dared to go off it but I didn't."
French said Outdoor Evening in the late 1950s was an important part of Winter Carnival.
He said the golf course was flooded and used as a skating rink during that event.
Allen said the brothers of Theta Delta also created their own rink as well as a toboggan run built from bleachers and a wooden frame.
"We iced it down and covered it with Thayer [Dining Hall] trays. The goal was to get all the way to the river," he said.
