Go Green!

That’s a phrase I heard a lot when I was a child. Both my grandfather and father were Dartmouth grads. There were also several uncles that did time there. It was very apparent that we were a Green family and it was understood that we would apply to Dartmouth when it was time to go away to college. The trouble was I only made the waiting list. I wouldn’t carry on the family tradition of going to an Ivy League college. Not a big deal, right? I’ve long since moved on from that failure. So, why am I writing about it thirty years later, you ask. Well, I’ve been consulting on the launch of a new brand and just the other day a rogue employee changed an employee name on the company website to Go Green. Clearly, this was not the brand’s naming convention and it was quickly changed. But, it stuck in my mind and reminded me of the phrase that was bantered around my childhood like Good morning, Good night, Please and Thank you. The phrase was omni-present. So, I always perk up when I hear it or see it.

I wrote about the Dartmouth debacle in my book Stonewall to Obama. Get your copy of it here.

Oh, and Happy Father’s day, Dad. Go Green!