When students leave Dartmouth College, they take many memories of Green Key weekends with them -- fraternity barbecues with live bands and dancing as well as afternoons on the Green spent lounging on the newly sprouting grass. They also, not too surprisingly, take away memories of alcohol and partying. But while some alumni remember drinking, other graduates have trouble retrieving memories due to the very source of their good times -- booze.
Scott Mellen '85 said he remembers a Green Key weekend revolving mostly around his fraternity, Alpha Delta, which he called the "main place" to be. For Mellen, the words "Green Key" conjure up memories of daytime parties with bands playing on the AD porch. He specifically remembers his senior spring, during which British punk sensation The Clash performed in Leede Arena.
"The bad news is that my memory is a little hazy because usually I was partying pretty good," he said. In addition to parties, Mellen also remembers playing golf during Green Key weekend, as part of a fraternity golf tournament.
"Of course, it involved alcohol as well as golf," Mellen said, as if it were a given.
Green Key was the best of the three big Dartmouth weekends for Jared Geller '02.
"The weather. The lawn party. Everyone outside on the Green. What's not to love?" Geller said.
But beyond that, Geller, who graduated only three years ago, had trouble recounting memories.
"I don't remember any specific stories unfortunately, at least none that I'd be willing to share publicly," Geller said.
Stuart Richards '63 said he remembers that alcohol was a large component of Green Key weekend.
"Probably too large a component," Richards said. "People were trying to have a good time, and they succeeded."
Richards could not say whether the Class of 1963 partied with more or less alcohol during their Green Keys than students of today, and he is not sure how the weekend has changed over the last 40 years. One of his sons, who attended Dartmouth College in the mid-1990s, has assured him that things are pretty much the same as ever.
"Some of his comments lead me to believe that some of this is not so different," Richards said. He added that although the alcohol situation may be similar, the school was probably raunchier in the 1960s due to its lack of women.
Richards remembers Green Key and fraternity parties the way they were immortalized by his Alpha Delta fraternity brother, Chris Miller '63, a co-writer of the 1978 movie "Animal House."
"People would drink too much and do funny things, amusing things, stupid things. In the end, I guess everyone gets through it -- mostly," Richards said.
But despite the lack of memories due to alcohol, or the prevalence of alcohol in memories that do endure, other alumni hold on to more wholesome recollections.
Scott Mellen's younger brother Chip Mellen '86, who was also a member of AD, remembers the Boston band Downtime, which traveled to Dartmouth to play at AD each Green Key weekend.
"Downtime was such a hit with my fraternity brothers that years later several of us, including myself, had them play at our weddings," Chip said. He recalled that there was so much dancing to Downtime during Green Key weekend that the early spring lawn of AD often turned into a giant "mud bowl."
Chip compared Green Key to Winter Carnival, saying that everyone had four visitors sleeping on the floor during Winter Carnival because "everyone came to visit by the busload." He preferred Green Key over its winter counterpart, saying he was completely willing to trade in a snow sculpture and poster for what he called the "low-key" nature of the spring festival.
"Green Key seemed far less the social event for outsiders than was Winter Carnival, and that seemed to suit us just fine," Chip Mellen said.
