Another typed letter from Dart shows he’s improving his keyboard skills. At church today, he volunteered to help host the teen rallies they have on Friday nights after Shaw High School has a home football game. For the first rally of the season they expected 15 kids and got 50. Now they’re up to 80. Dart’s help selling pop or doughnuts is greatly needed and appreciated.
Dart had a nice long chat with Al Forbush at church today. (If you recall, Al was dating Dot’s housemate from Kent last year.) Al seems to be doing pretty well at Fenn College. He’s had a couple of dates with Phyll and he’s also dating a couple of girls at Fenn. Al says Phyll has a job that keeps her from going out on Saturday nights.
As he was talking with Al, a couple of other classmates from Shaw passed by. There are a lot of guys from there who are going to Kent this year. Dart’s sort of glad that Dot didn’t go back to campus for a second year because all these guys are wild, and they’re taking Phys Ed, so he’s afraid she would have run into them (or been run over by them).
Then, along comes Fred! It’s apparently Dart’s day for seeing old pals. He and Fred stood on the sidewalk for quite a while. “We chatted for a long time and not a word of disagreement passed between us. He cusses like a man who has forgotten any decent words, though. Just as I did when I was in the Navy. (I’m happy to say that my language has undergone a pretty fair conversion, and I’m no longer afraid of cutting loose with some particularly juicy bit of banter at the dinner table.) Back to Fred, though, he seemed in good spirits today. If the school bookstore doesn’t get any psych textbooks in tomorrow, he may stop by to borrow my first semester text.”
“We’ve been fortunate in having an occasional scrap of meat to eat recently; seven wieners, a few slices of pressed ham, some spare ribs, some neck bones. Pop sure needs meat. Just doesn’t have any strength at all. Two trips upstairs in one hour tire him immensely.”
He writes at length about the plethora of concerts coming to town in the near months to the many music venues around Cleveland. He hopes that next year both their time and their money budgets can include lots of concerts, especially jazz. “I know you don’t want to ‘go’ all the time, but I’d surely like to keep up with the world by attending those things.” He wants to expose her to all kinds of music because his tastes are so varied. He hopes she like the plays he suggests, and he hopes she’ll suggest plays as well. Most of all, he just wants her to like going places with him.
Then he stews for an entire page that she may think going to a play or a concert every week or two will be too much “chasing around” for her – something she has expressed an aversion to. But he wants them to broaden their horizons, talk about what they’ve experienced, laugh together, make memories together. Now, it seems to me that Dot is generally fine with trying new adventures. I’m not sure why he’s worried that she’ll balk at this idea. In the end, he writes “As I read this over, it looks like I’ve over-sold my idea again, without putting the basic thought across. I wish I could get back on the ball and say what I mean. And say it in fewer words, too.”
# # #
After babysitting with the Pecsok children, Dot sat for three little boys (a new customer) and didn’t get home last night until 2:00 AM. Today she and Jane and Uncle Ralph went to a football game between the Greenwich Majestics and the Stamford Maroons. Dot says the latter team name should be spelled “Morons,” because they played so badly.
Tomorrow is the big day – she starts her new job. She’s excited, but also a little scared, as is usual in such circumstances. “For further information, keep an eye peeled for the mailman the day after you get this letter.”
As she looks out the window at the moon, she can’t help but wish they were enjoying it together, as they did last month. She imagines it’s probably almost as cold on that dock at Lake Sunapee now as it is in her bedroom this very moment.
“That’s all for tonight, except, of course, I love you!”