Somerby said he doesn't believe Gore had ever been punched, and both Somerby and Kapetan say Gore never joined a final club, nor did he seem to be interested in them.

During his sophomore year, Gore spent Friday nights at the movies with the guys, around a dusty pool table in the Dunster basement or amid a deck of playing cards.

Gore would leave Cambridge at night for one reason: to court Tipper, who was then a student at Boston University.

By all accounts, the two fell deeply in love, very quickly. Consequently, as his Harvard years unfolded, Gore spent less and less of his free time with his roommates.

"Gore had a steady girlfriend," says Kapetan. "His weekends were...you know..."

Tending the Farm

Through his four years at Harvard, Gore would return home to Tennessee as many times as he would visit his father's temporary residence in Washington.

Though he spent much of his early life in a fancy Washington, D. C. hotel--perhaps, some have said, giving him a sense of privilege--he spent most of his summer vacations in Tennessee. And nearly all of Gore's biographers, even the critical ones like Robert Zelnick, say that Gore's parents insisted that their son learn the value of working with his hands.