Red, White & Blue on Dartmouth Green

Desi and Della will likely be around for the nation's Tricentennial.  Imagine what their world will be like (or don't, if you're a half-empty glass kind of guy like I am).

"Hoarfrost with Rabbit" by Kiki Smith (2014), Hood Art Museum

We happened upon an Independence Day parade in Hanover, New Hampshire while checking out Dartmouth College where Victor, my former Pines housemate, is an alumnus.  

Watching the small-town parade made me feel a lot better about life in America than anything I read in the newspaper.  I felt the same way after driving to Seattle and back three summers ago.  Polarization is less apparent in person.

Wrapped samples of Red Kite Candy, tossed from this tiny Fiat, definitely elevated my blood sugar level, but in a really good way.  If the store hadn't been closed, I would have bought a box of melt-in-your-mouth caramels and I'm not usually a candy guy.

A fierce bull painted on a blue pick-up served as a reminder that they're not all like Ferdinand whom Thom and I had visited on the drive to Quechee.

Dartmouth's Hood Museum of Art commissioned this work for a nearby building's exterior. Artist Ellsworth Kelly says its architecture reminded him of symmetrical Renaissance arches. Alumnus and private equity investor Leon Black paid for it before he was besmirched by the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

Dartmouth Panels (2012)

Victor's college experience must have been considerably different than mine, not only because the campus is somewhat rural and isolated.  Dartmouth has the Ivy League's smallest undergraduate enrollment and a reputation for conservatism.  Both of these buildings face the Green, a large town square where the paraders and locals celebrated the sweat-inducing holiday.

Dartmouth Hall

Brauner Library

Somehow, I can't imagine a petting zoo on the South Lawn.

Local firefighters displayed their trucks and equipment and gave away some red plastic hats.  Too bad Dagny was at sleep away camp for her first time.  Kids really do grow up so fast . . . 

Della always manages to find a way to provoke.  Nobody else was shouting out the British capital on their tees!

The Tricksters, a New England wedding band, really, REALLY rocked.  I never realized how much Shake It Off owes to Hey Ya!

Dartmouth is full of surprises, like this oddly tricked-out car.

We assembled for a Semiquincentennial photo op with the Founding Fathers and Abigail Adams, both a founding mother and wife if anyone's asking.

Occasional showers did not dampen Desi's enthusiasm for the pool later that afternoon.  He does love his binky.

Despite her raspberry, Della was enthusiastic about the new summer outfits Thom bought for the D-Kids.  Dagny's awaited hers in Boston.

 

I gave Desi one last spin prior to our departure Sunday morning.  Blind Moofy wanted to get in on the dizziness, too.