Dart has much to write, but not much time. He spoke with his friend Al tonight. Just a reminder, Al was a friend who would go to Kent with Dart last school year and had several dates with Dot’s roommate Phyll. He just got back from a trip out west; he and a buddy were heading to Yellowstone, but Al’s car opted not to go along, so they came home. He’s heard from Phyll, who is planning to return to Kent this month, so he’ll probably go out and see her.
Burke must decline Dot’s invitation to Sunapee because he has set plans with his friend Roger in NYC. Plus, Burke has to get back to Cleveland in time to prepare to go to Chicago to start school there.
Dart discussed with Burke Dot’s plan for bringing their parents east, but that plan also looks like it’s DOA. “First, it’s awfully short notice for them to shake off years of going nowhere and pack and be ready in two days. In the second place, we don’t have enough luggage in the whole fam-damily to carry enough clothes for us all. In the third place, Mom and Pop don’t have enough ‘going away’ clothing and it would embarrass them terribly if they either had to give that as a reason, or suppress it. Finally. money doesn’t grow on trees, even in Ohio where we have enough rain to make anything grow. There doesn’t seem to be any way for there to be much money before next year, so we’ll need every cent we can scrape together to get them ready and able to go to our wedding next June.”
He sounds hurt and exasperated when he tells Dot how hard it is for him to see his folks have to dip into their meager savings just to buy food. Just thinking about it makes him so angry that he fears he can’t write a decent letter. “If you were here, you’d see me having the kind of mood that I get so perturbed at Pop for having.”
Next, he confesses a big anxiety he has that gnaws away at him: he fears that his folks won’t come to the wedding. “I know they say now that they’re planning it, but I know how they think, that they’ll come forth with some perfectly normal rationalization which will prevent them from it. Their way of solving problems seems to be finding an acceptable reason for not solving them.
He continues to stew about his father. The other day, his mom mentioned that she was going to look for a job, and Pop had a fit! He was in bed for two days. Then he looked for a job over a two-day period, gave up, and got sick again. “When Mom tries to find work herself, Pop storms off and gets very angry. He’s just so tense and nervous that I’m afraid for him.”
Dart tells Dot that the two most stubborn men he’s ever known are his father, and his Uncle Guy. When Guy doesn’t get his way, he turns his wrath outward, bellowing and belittling everyone around him. It has cost him his friends and his business. Dart, Sr., on the other hand, turns his anger at being thwarted inward. He makes himself sick. Dart believes his father’s troubles are more mental than physical, but the results are the same. He’s barely able to function.
Dart feels guilty at times that he doesn’t quit school and take care of his parents. “Normal people don’t feel that way. Most people don’t have any need to.”
He knows that he shouldn’t dump all of this on Dot; that’s it none of her concern, but he feels he must confide in someone. Since he is closer to her than to anyone on earth, he can think of no one else. Even though they are not married, that’s a technicality in his mind, and he thinks of her as his wife. When he vents like this, he doesn’t expect advice – he just wants someone else to know what he’s going through.
Above all, he hopes that by hearing these stories, she will not change her mind about coming to Cleveland. The entire family is eager for her visit – indeed, Dart thinks they need the joy and positiveness that she’ll being into the house.
Because this is the last time either of them writes until September 25, there is no record of Dot’s reaction to this dark and depressing letter. I suspect that being together, at a tranquil setting like Sunapee, all the cares and worries that either of them has will fade into a distant memory.
Check back here on the 9th when I will share the letter that Ruth Chamberlain sent to Dart while he was at the lake. It was a kind of tradition among the Chamberlain clan that nobody ever spent more than a day or so in the cottage without getting a “letter from home.”