Dart types that he sometimes wonders why he even bothers to go to school. He scored a 45% on his latest Spanish test, even after studying hard for it. He has to take another year of Spanish and he’s not entirely sure he’ll pass this year. Naturally, he’s very discouraged.
Pop has put in two nights at work, but he’s hardly had any sleep since he learned that he was going to start working again. “He gets to bed and immediately starts worrying about getting to sleep. That makes him so tense that there’s just to chance at all for him to sleep until he shuts down from sheer nerves and physical exhaustion. In his condition he won’t last a week if this keeps up.”
He says this seems to be shaping up into the kind of letter he wasn’t going to write any more.
There were lots of stories coming over the wires last night at work about the Connecticut black out. There was even one about a nurse at Greenwich Hospital who kept a patient alive with an improvised substitute when his iron lung stopped, and he wonders if that was Dot’s friend Nancy.
He’s heard about that wedding-crashing racket. Don’t the ushers have some responsibility to keep the gate-crashers out? Maybe he should bring his husky pal Homer to act as a bouncer to scare people who don’t belong there off. Doesn’t the Chamberlain family, so well-connected in that small town, know anyone on the police force that could keep their wedding clear of dirty tricksters? Dart seem inordinately concerned of mischief makers at their nuptials!
That’s all for tonight. He’s off to night classes and then it’s back to homework.
# # #
It pains me to say that today’s letter is the last entry we have for Dot, except for an undated telegram she sent to Dart on the eve of his final exams. I’ll post that later in the month. Meanwhile, let’s see what she’s been up to and try not to feel too cheated that the remainder of her pre-marital letters have vanished.
Dot and El were caught by surprise again with another bridal shower. This one was hosted by her cousins at a big place called Tod Mansion. That’s an old Greenwich estate that had been broken up into small apartments with common living areas to help ease the post-war housing crunch in Greenwich. Her cousin Janie’s older sisters who had each married a Ficker brother, lived in the Mansion. I’ll let Dot describe the situation herself.
Well, they did it again. Yep, El and I walked into a surprise shower at the Tod’s Mansion. El was in her dungarees which were covered in paint, and I was in an old cotton dress I’d been wearing all day at the Miller’s.
Supposedly, they wanted me to stay at the mansion with baby Janie and young Smokey Ficker. El picked me up at the Millers and drove me over to Tod’s because she’d never seen baby Janie. When we walked into the Fickers’ community living room, we heard 14 voices yell a chorus of ‘SURPRISE!’ El turned around and beat it out the door and I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. Betty ran to get El, and I sank to my knees, which by then had turned to water.
The gifts were carefully planned. El was given a personal shower and I received a miscellaneous shower. We got some lovely things, honey. It’s late now so I won’t go into details, but will merely name some of the things we received. Gay colored dish towels and cloths; pot-holders ; three large bath towels, face cloths, and hand towels; a dainty bureau scarf; an aluminum pitcher; luncheon set; lily of the valley toilet water; a set of coasters and place mats; plus a butter spreader for our ‘Candlelight’ set from Aunt Ethel who is giving us a whole place setting for our wedding present!
The rest will have to wait, Darling. I’m very tired and must get some shut-eye. It’s a lot of work to chase the three Miller kids, but they’re sweet, and so are you. I love you, Dart.