We have two letters today – both from Dot. She tells Dart that she received, and has already answered, a letter from his mother. She also tells him that she is sitting in the living room at that very moment with a coat on. It is 52 degrees in Greenwich. She wonders how her mother and brother are staying warm in their summer cottage in New Hampshire. It seems that when the heat wave broke, it shattered!

“Isn’t it nice to know there’s always the weather to talk about? I don’t know how I’d fill a page without it,” she writes. This is especially true when she’s had no letters to respond to of late. During this unusual dry spell from Dart, it’s easy to see how important it was to the relationship that both of our writers maintained an almost constant stream of letters, month after month. If either had procrastinated regularly, the gaps between letters would have grown. With less immediacy, the responses might have seemed less intimate. If the correspondence had become lopsided, one person or the other might have become resentful. Although Dot has not complained once during these recent days, I am grateful that long lapses on the part of either party were the exception. It is the continuous and even flow of letters that allowed the relationship to flourish over long absences  and very infrequent face-to-face contact. If they hadn’t both been such loyal correspondents, they may not have ended up married. Indeed, I may have never been born! See why I’m so grateful they wrote as they did?

Dot is preparing to attend El’s surprise bridal shower this evening. She’s purchased two place settings of the everyday dinnerware El has selected. The couple plans to marry on Dec. 4 if Don is successful in graduating on Dec. 2. I believe I have mentioned earlier that things didn’t work out the way they planned…

This being Dot’s half day off, she intends to get the whole house clean today. She says the house never seems large to her until she has to clean it. Well, it was a three-story home with huge rooms, so I’d say it would be a major achievement to get the entire place clean after a half day of working elsewhere!

She wishes Dart continued luck on his swimming lessons (unaware that he’s been temporarily banned from participating) and wishes him luck on his “suicide jump.” I don’t recall reading about that, so I’m not sure what she means.

In her second letter of the day, Dot reports in after the bridal shower. It turned out to be a complete surprise for the bride and a great success. El received beautiful and practical gifts, with no duplicates among them. Dot describes some sort of game they played which was meant to predict who among the unmarried girls at the party would be the next to wed, and how many babies each would eventually have. The game might have been rigged, because Dot “won” the next-to-get-married title and was deemed to have five children in her future.

She promises to answer the two letters she received today from Dart  tomorrow night. She also thanks him for the pictures he sent. “They make you seem a little closer, yet you still feel worlds away from Greenwich, Conn.”