One-hundred years have passed since the College's first spring celebration was planned in 1899. The green of spring after a long New England winter planted the seed for revelry and an opportunity for Dartmouth men to bring women to the campus.
"Hanover is God's gift to women this weekend, as hundreds of the proverbially fair sex invade the New Hampshire plain from the world at large. By train, car, hook or crook the belles will barge into this normally peaceful hamlet," read a 1938 editorial in The Dartmouth.
The tradition of spring celebration is a century old, but the festivities did not become a ritual until the Green Key Society was formed in 1921. Although the words tradition and ritual suggest a permanence and repeated set of events, like other Dartmouth traditions, Green Key weekend continues to grow and change, as each generation of Dartmouth students adds its own touch to College history.
The Dating Game
Although most incoming students are familiar with the tales of Homecoming bonfires and Winter Carnival sculptures, the traditions and history of Green Key and the importance of the weekend today are not quite as clear.
The Green Key Society - formed in 1921 and consisting of 50 College juniors - began holding an annual spring variety show to enjoy the warm glow of nice weather after being pent up for the blustery dark winters.
In 1929 the community service-based Society replaced the variety show with a formal prom, and it was not long before the weekend became the Society's major function and students' major social event for the spring.
The men of Dartmouth embraced the prom, and dates for the weekend became of utmost importance - students often went to dangerous extremes to not be left out in the quest for companionship.
During the weekend prior to Green Key in 1948, 166 Colby Junior College (now Colby-Sawyer) women were sentenced to spend one week of confinement on campus after they admitted to drinking alcohol.
In protest, 301 Dartmouth men signed a petition asking Colby to lift the restrictions and allow the women to attend Dartmouth's Green Key weekend.
The Colby Supreme Court, despite the telegram of chair of the Green Key dance committee Dean Cameron '49 requesting "special consideration due to low ticket sales," decided the girls would be forced to stay home.
Jacques Harlow '50 told The Dartmouth about a harrowing airplane incident that occurred trying to bring his roommate's date back to Skidmore College after she missed her bus. His roommate, a pilot, had access to a small propeller plane in which the two flew her back to her campus.
On the return trip, the compass malfunctioned and Harlow's roommate had to follow the Connecticut River north to find his way back to Dartmouth.
For those who did make it to Hanover, "God's gift to women" rolled out the red carpet for the guests. The visiting women spent the weekend in their dates' fraternity houses and the name of each brother's date was printed in The Dartmouth.
Freshmen, not allowed to participate in the activities, spent the weekend dateless in the main dining hall.
Not your typical weekend
The formality of the weekend was not without its share of absurd, outrageous and bizarre events.
In 1931, Lulu McWoosh, a student at a nearby college, started one Green Key morning with a bike ride before church services. Although it is not unusual to spot someone enjoying the pleasant quietness of a weekend morning with a ride, the fact that McWoosh was also naked cancelled Green Key Weekend for the next three years.
When the dance was brought back in 1946 after a two-year respite during World War II, formal attire was no longer mandatory.
In 1954, the Hanover police closed the Hanover Country Club golf course under the charges of "misuse of the town's normally afforded pleasure privileges" by 69 students and their dates at 4 a.m. Saturday morning.
The police had been prompted to patrol the area after a student was discovered snacking on the eighth hole green an hour earlier.
The student was apprehended along with his picnic - the meal included hot dogs, rolls, mustard, cupcakes, coffee, marijuana, heroin and Alka-Seltzer.
By the 1960s, the golf course had become a center of Green Key. Hundreds of students went there with their dates - often bringing blankets pillows and even mattresses.
Hanover residents complained about the blatant exposure of their children to the "less Puritan" aspects of the College, and the administration responded by sending caretakers out to awaken the students.
In the dawn hours, yawning students awoke to the shock of bullhorns and sprinkler-armed caretakers. Threatened with getting soaked, the students left the golf course and the tradition was eventually abandoned.
In 1967 another tradition ended when the Green Key dance took place for the last time. Students rioted after a speech by then-former Governor of Alabama George Wallace and formed a ring around Wallace's car. They refused to allow him to drive away for five or six hours, and the Green Key Ball was cancelled.
Frats and Bands
Band concerts and Greek events have always been a highlight of Green Key.
Beta Theta Pi and Psi Upsilon fraternities used to hold a bike marathon from Hanover to Amherst, Mass. One brother from each house took a shift riding while others followed behind in cars filled with water and beer.
The 1960s pitted Chi Phi (now Chi Hereot) and Pi Lambda Phi fraternities against one another in a piano smashing contest.
A less destructive musical event was the singing competition called the "Hums," which was part of the Greek Games. The intra-fraternity competition was judged by administration members, and houses won awards for the best lyrical presentations.
In 1974, in the infancy of the College's coeducation, the winning song reflected the tense atmosphere women faced when integrating into the all-male society.
The winning song that year ,"Our Cohogs," sung to the tune of "This Old Man," featured the demoralizing lyrics, "Our cohogs they play one, 'cause of them we have no fun" and the eighth verse, "Our cohogs, they play eight, because of them we masturbate."
The "hums" have since been discontinued.
Bands have had a long history as a part of the Green Key celebration.
Professional orchestras provided the music for the prom in the Big-Band Era.
Earl Fuller's Jazz band played in 1929 and swing legends Tommy Corsey and Artie Shaw were featured in 1938.
In 1963 the Green vibrated with the sounds of rock-and-roll with four bands playing in the center of campus.
During the 1960s each of the 24 fraternities brought a band to campus, so waves of music rippled over the College from all directions.
The Grateful Dead played in Leede Arena, bringing throngs of "dead heads" to the College in 1978.
Anthrax played on Alpha Delta fraternity's lawn in 1982 and 1988 brought the rhythms of Blues Traveler to the AD porch.
