For post-war classes like the Class of '49, studying was serious business, and restrictive parietal regulations made a dormitory nightlife nearly impossible.

"There were serious rules about when women could be in men's rooms...My recollection is that 8 p.m. was the limit except on Saturdays, when it may have been as late as 11," remembers John Snook '49.

So when they closed their books, the Class of '49 headed to the Square and beyond for food, drink, and, well, a little more.

"If you were of a mind for some degree of ardent physical contact,...a car was much to be desired," Snook says.

Although a few of the old haunts of the Class of 1949 are still in the Square-including the Harvard Provision Company, Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage and the Harvard Cooperative Society-most live only in their memory.

Be There or Be Square

Most members of the class say that with some exceptions, the broad outline of the Square is relatively the same today as it was in 1949.

"At any rate, the physical appearance of the Square is remarkably like what I remember," Snook says.

The traffic and seemingly constant construction projects have not changed, either.

"[The Square] was always under construction in one way or another, new buildings or renovations of old ones; street upheaval and resurfacing; new traffic flow designs engineered by people gifted in...gridlock," says John A.S. Rogers '49.

The major difference in the Square was the fact that Harvard Square was at that time the last stop on the T. The storage yard for trains was located on the current site of the Kennedy School of Government.

In 1949, Mass. Ave. was a two-way street and traffic was much more difficult to control.

The Class of '49 also witnessed the first parking meters in the Square, which appeared in 1948 and charged motorists five cents an hour.

Most of the class members' fondest memories focus on nothing more spectacular than a cup of coffee or a beer. The Square and student life in it was very different in 1949, and was more low-key over all.

"It had no big places to spend money, because none of us had much-my college allowance was $10 a week and more than enough for anything anyone could want," says Anne T. Wallach '49.