The sun shone brightly in Cleveland today, washing the city with a golden light. But the real golden light in Dart’s day was when he returned home to find a luscious letter from Dot awaiting him.
He uses most of his two pages today discussing the pros and cons of dropping his typing class. He is spending a huge amount of time on it and is not improving much. If he dropped it, he’d have more time to devote to his other subjects. He feels like he’s learned the keyboard well enough now to do a fair job of neatly completing his themes and papers in good time. Most importantly, he cannot afford to get a D or and F, even in a one-hour class because he’s on academic probation. He’ll give it more thought and speak with his various professors before making up his mind.
An observation: Dad lived out most of his technical writing and editing career in an era when most men had secretaries to do their typing. As his career was wrapping up, he briefly entered the age of word processors and computers, and he was delighted by the prospect of being able to easily correct his own work without having to re-type whole pages. I recall that when he did type, he could peck out a fairly rapid pace with only two fingers. In short, lack of conventional typing skills didn’t seem to hold him back much.
A brief conversation with Mrs. Dixon today informed Dart that Fred is taking classes at Cleveland College. He doesn’t like his French class. Dart has almost decided to take Spanish as his language.
He mentions that his parents drove all the way to Salem today for some tile, but had no luck. There have been several references to tile in his letters. I recall when my grandparents were downsizing their apartment, we received a number of things created from hand painted tiles: lamps, trivets, and the like. Dad explained to me that Pop had made all of those things. I don’t know if the tile work was an artistic outlet that served as therapy for him, a means of bringing a little income into the family, or both, but I do know that the items we received were beautifully done.
Although Dart loves Dot so much it hurts, he must get some sleep rather than spend more time writing.
# # #
Dot writes two letters today – one that she begins after midnight, and the other written the following evening.
She tells Dart that her days seem to start in the late morning and end in the early morning. She started today by changing all the bed sheets in the house, washing the dishes and putting on a load of laundry. She’s enthralled with the new washing machine. Even though it’s supposed to be a great time-saver, she spends the time just watching it go through the cycles. Fascinating! When I read about all she does around that big Chamberlain house, I wonder what the other members of the family contribute to the cleaning and maintenance of the place.
Tonight while doing dishes after work, she was listening to El’s album of “Carousel.” That’s one record she’d like to have in her collection someday when she has nowhere else to put $5.00.
She tells a cute story about a little 7-year old boy in her day camp named Danny Pendergast. She describes him as “cute as a bug’s ear and very conscientious.” He’s on her clean-up team, and today he spent an hour creating a stick with a nail in it so he doesn’t have to bend over to pick up trash. He begs her for extra work so he can earn badges faster. Today he told her earnestly that he wants to always be on her team when they play games. She let him win at checkers this afternoon and his prize was her reading Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig stories to him. “You’d think I had given him a new bicycle – he was pleased as punch.” Dot has a soft spot for cute little boys, no doubt. In this case, it looks like the affection is mutual.
Mom’s cousin, Dot Pierce Rucquoi and her three children came for dinner tonight but had to leave before Dot got home from work. The family just moved into their new home in New Rochelle and Dot looks forward to seeing more of them than she did when they were living in Brussels, Belgium. This is the cousin who, with her husband Leon was given a tour of Cleveland by Dart a few months back. Dart must have made a great impression on Dot (the cousin) because when she heard he had been accepted at college, she was so happy that she got chills down her spine. She wishes him all the very best. Maybe her affection for him stems from the fact that Dart looks like her brother.
Back to our Dot – she asks Dart if he recalls how hard her cousin tried to convince her to get her education? Well, today when Ruth told her that Dottie was trying to decide if she should go back to college or stay out and get a year’s experience in the work force, Dot R. said if it were her, she’d take the experience over the education! She must really want these two kids to get married!
Having opened the topic of quitting school in exchange for working, Dot begs Dart to voice an opinion. What would his parents think if she didn’t complete college? If she does return to Kent, or some place else, they certainly couldn’t get married next June. How could she be in college until June and then prepare for a wedding in a few days? And she so desperately wants to marry him.
She begins her second letter of the day by asking Dart if he will marry her in June 1947 without making a fuss, or will she have to force him into it? And, by the way, she says nobody calls her future husband cheap, especially him. “No doubt, things look pretty bleak to you and your family right now, but God is still the supreme power, and with God and love working hand-in-hand, how can we lose?”
It seems she has received his rather gloomy letters of a few days ago – one in which he was brooding about their grim financial picture, and the other where he was ranting against the government.
Her father just called her from his shop to tell Dart to keep a stiff upper lip. He has heard that the first 100 years are the hardest, but in his experience, the first 50 or so have not been too bad.
She writes that the other night when she was finding it so hard to decide about school, her wise mother told her something would happen to help her decide. It did, and she has. She isn’t going back to school in the fall. “I’m not nearly as set on having an education as I am on becoming your wife.”
As of today, she’ll be working seven days a week. To her way of thinking, her regular job keeps her outside in the fresh air and sunshine all week, so she doesn’t need weekends for that. Mrs. Miller wants her as many Saturdays and Sundays as she’s willing to work, so Dot’s going to oblige. “A great deal of my work there is a pleasure anyway, ‘cuz I love the kids and they are usually very good.” She vows that she won’t be overworked.
She begs Dart to “buck up and quit worrying.” She makes the suggestion that he turn all the worries over to her, she’ll ignore them, and then both of them will be free from worry. That actually may have set the pattern for their entire life together.
“There will probably be times when you want to ramp [sic] and rage about the state of the nation, but please do me a favor. When you feel such a spell coming on, go upstairs and write to me to get it off your chest. That way, you’ll feel better and your parents won’t feel any worse.” Such a wise and compassionate young woman!
She continues that she and Dart will certainly come across lots of hard times in their life, but they may as well start showing themselves and others that they can take them in stride.
“It’s important that you forget to worry and remember that I love you very much and am increasingly proud and happy that I will one day be your wife.”