With just 20 minutes until dinner, Dart gets started on a letter by trying out his new typewriter ribbon. This small thing that used to cost between 35 and 50 cents now set him back 85 cents. He wishes he’d paid more attention to Mr. Schmidt at work when he showed Dart how to reverse the ribbon to squeeze a bit more use out of it.
His Spanish test yielded a very poor 77. He’ll need to pull out all the stops if he hopes to bring that grade up to a B.
At his teeth-cleaning appointment today, the dentist discovered a small cavity and a loose filling. Repairs are scheduled for April 25.
Much later that night, he reports that his psychology and Spanish work is done and he can turn his attention to his favorite activity of the day – writing to Dot.
He fears she can look forward to a shortage of letters written on Mondays and Wednesdays. In addition to those being big class nights, he must also prepare for English the following days.
“Speaking of English, I talked the registrar into listening to me to me long enough for me to convince her she should look up ‘Technical Exposition’ in the Case catalogue and re-evaluate the course. It turns out she never did evaluate it in the first place, so I now have three more credits, for a total of 85. Senior status begins at 90.”
This week has brought three chance encounters with three friends from high school. The biggest news is that Fred is no longer seeing Bettie, to whom he was engaged just a couple of months ago.
Several times in recent letters, Dart has mentioned that he’s enclosed some box tops for Dot. Today he tells her that he has two boxes of Ralston cereal which he’ll hurry up and eat so that he can send the tops to her. He gives no indication what Dot plans to do with these items, but thrifty Dot will surely make good use of them somehow.
He thinks the cards she sent for his folks we very cute and a nice gesture. He agrees that Nancy can surely come out for a visit in August. Maybe she can help them paint their apartment, if they’re not done with that job by then.
He finds himself in a bit of a stew. He needs the Plain Dealer money very badly, but he has an even bigger need for more time. He loathes the idea of giving up a class or an outside activity, so he’s in a tough spot. He thinks the best idea would be to get a day job on Friday and/or Saturday, freeing up his weekend nights for study. He finds he does better work during the late hours than trying to fight daytime distractions.
He’s been trying to budget his earnings to buy more shirts and to pay to have them laundered to save his mother the trouble, but if he gives up that job, he’ll also have to abandon the plan. I find it interesting that the idea of washing his own shirts to save his mother the effort never entered his mind! This was the guy who had to do all his own laundry when he was under the care of Uncle Sam and the US Navy.
It’s too bad that Dot feels embarrassed when friends of Eleanor’s think they must give both brides an engagement present. After all, Dot’s been engaged for quite some time and had her moment in the limelight, but evidently, some folks feel they can’t give El a gift and ignore Dot. When he learned that one of Dot’s Andrews friends named Columbia will be a bridesmaid, he said he thinks he remembers her. He asks if she is the “gem of the ocean, or just Lake Erie.”
Time seems to be flying by until the wedding. (Almost down to 100 days!) One of the women on the Skyline staff said that they should all give Dart a bachelor party. The only thing he can think about is the time pressure he’s under. He wonders if he’ll ever be able to relax again.
“It’s late, honey. Come on, let’s trade back washes and back rubs and a million kisses and caresses, and go to bed. Here – snuggle up and we can sleep this way. Good night, Darling.”
No letters tomorrow.