Education: Of Dates & Drags

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Two Dartmouth seniors saw an opportunity. They had seen girl after distressed girl come up for a Dartmouth weekend with the wrong clothes, the wrong expectations, the wrong attitude. William B. Jones and Richard H. O'Riley thought they could improve that situation, if anybody could. They had already written a men's guide to women's colleges, For Men Lonely (TIME, Nov. 17, 1947). Last week they published a sequel: Weekend, A Girl's Guide to' the College Weekend (Houghton Mifflin; $1.50).

The weekend world that its authors discuss is bounded on the north by Hanover, N.H., on the west by Ithaca, N.Y. and on the south by Annapolis, Md. And even in this narrow province there are local differences. Harvard men, say the Dartmouth authors, try to act indifferent; a Williams man "always manages to look as though he has just been out for a stroll to see how the new colt is faring."

Girls will learn that they are "dates" at Brown, but "drags" at Annapolis, that crew-cut Harvard men expect them to know what "catching a crab" means, and that at Dartmouth there are only three seasons: before, during and after winter. For girls on their way to Annapolis or West Point, Weekend gives full details on military protocol, and how to distinguish cadet first classmen by the stripes on their sleeves from the lowlier "cows" or "yearlings" (at the Point "You walk everywhere, spend your own money, and half the time you're not with your escort").

Tenors Needed. A big 1948 weekend, say Jones & O'Riley, costs the college man anywhere from $35 to $60. Williams, like Dartmouth, is a skiing college: "You'll eat in ski pants, dance in ski pants, and if you ever get to bed, you might just as well sleep in ski pants." Amherst parties "are definitely of the beery, spur-of-the-moment variety"; a Holyoke girl once complained that "all they ask you for is to sing tenor in some quartet." Princeton parties are held "in rooms that seem no larger than a small station wagon." And a Yale football weekend is "one continuous cocktail party, punctuated by an occasional dance and an afternoon sitting in the cold to sober up."

The favorite drink at Williams is a Purple Passion (gin plus "anything else behind the bar that's not quite finished off"). Princeton's drink is the Sea Breeze (which also begins with gin, then gets out of hand). At Yale, a girl can get away with "two suits and two dressy dresses"; at Cornell, she should have a fall suit, a cocktail dress, a sweater & skirt, an evening dress, walking shoes, dancing shoes, an evening wrap and a warm coat.

Helplessness Discouraged. The Weekend authors, who take their avuncular duties seriously, describe hotels and list trains for all college towns. Girls are warned against drinking too much ("No man likes a prude, but it's far worse to have a girl who laps up everything in sight"), and other forms of helplessness ("Don't depend on your host to look up trains"). They are also advised that the paint on Yale Bowl benches rubs off, and that "if you ever want to give a [West Point] plebe anything, bring him food, for he is always hungry."