Today’s letter from Dart is a little unsettling. It begins, “Don’t read any more than this if you don’t want to read a discouraged letter. I’m worried over the state of the nation and what it will do to us.”
He continues, “The thing that brings it all on is the damnable destruction of the chance that the ordinary person had of getting the necessities of life at a price he could afford to pay.”
For the next couple of paragraphs he recounts stories of rent increases of between 200 and 500 percent. He talks about going from a day when some meat was available for prices that low income workers could afford to a time when lots of meat will be available at black market prices.
He raises the question of where his family can move, since they cannot afford the $90 rent that their landlord is asking. He reminds Dot that his father is unable to work. He frets about how he’ll be able to save any money toward their getting married in a year. And he asks, “What good is a veteran’s $65 a month when it costs that much for food and clothing?”
And then it gets more personal. “Oh, Dot, I feel so darned cheap at asking you to marry me when the best we can do is so very bad. All we can do is hope that there’ll be a leveling-off, a revolution, or some sort of solution before we are to take our most sought-after step, next June.”
His final paragraph gives some clue as to the source of his great and sudden distress. “The step Mr. Truman took today will live in infamy as the most degrading of all the indignities a stubborn man has piled upon the American people. They cannot save themselves from each other. It is the duty of their President to preserve the rights and privilege we have so jealously guarded. But, no. He must turn his stubborn back upon the pleas of the people who can now have no further respect for his formerly-esteemed office. Heaven help us all.”
Wow! Such despair and bitterness! I had to find out what single act of President Truman could have made such an impact. The best evidence I could find was reference to his veto of a bill which would have extended the wartime price controls, thereby allowing market forces to set the economic pace in America. (For more information, check out this link: http://trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/viewpapers.php?pid=1607)
I think what we see in this letter is the boiling over of Dart’s simmering anxiety about the future. His family is living in dire financial circumstances which weigh on him. Add to that his intense worry that, in spite of all his efforts, there is no way he and Dot will be able to marry in a year. When you season his very real financial concerns with his wounded ego over flunking out of Case and not being able to get into Western Reserve, our dear Dart is in a fragile state. Let’s just hope it’s temporary.
# # #
Reading Dot’s letter after Dart’s is like emerging from a cave into a bright summer day. She fills eight pages with news, jokes and romance.
“Doug is at Boy Scout camp, El went to a party last night, and Dad all-of-a-sudden decided to take Mom out to dinner & the movies. When I got home from work last night around 9:30 and found the house empty of everything but dirt, I set about getting rid of that, too.”
She explains that her father painted the back bathroom last March after he took the chimney down, but nothing had been done to it since. Everything was covered with plaster dust and paint splatters. “First, I put the fixtures up and then set to work scrubbing! By 11:30. things looked pretty good, but I hadn’t scrubbed the floor, washed the windows or put the curtains up. Mom and Dad came home and made me quit and go to bed.”
She started in again this morning and managed to accomplish quite a bit today, including: scrubbing both the bathroom and kitchen floors, washing the front porch and the porch furniture, washing three sweaters, cleaning the bath windows, ironing curtains and doing the dinner dishes. Phew! She declined an invitation to go over to her aunt and uncle’s house tonight with her parents because she wanted to write to Dart. Also, she needs to get to bed early because she’d watching the three Miller boys after church tomorrow.
Referring to Dart’s recent letters, she admits that she, too, must keep busy in order to keep from missing him too much. (I think she’s mastered the “busy” thing pretty well!) It hurts so much to recall all the times they’ve had together, yet she wouldn’t trade those memories for anything. It is the pleasure of those memories that allow her to see into the future and know the happiness that’s in store for them. “Won’t it be wonderful when you won’t have to put me on a train anymore, or vice versa? I thrive on the anticipation of our life together a year from now. Even though everything is so uncertain as to how we’re going to manage financially, I can hardly wait to show the rest of the world that we can do a good job of being Mr. and Mrs. D. G. Peterson, Jr.”
Pegasus appreciated his get well card so much that she seems to have heeded his advice. She didn’t cough once when Dot drove her to Harriet’s tonight. Ruth discovered recently that the old car was only firing on three of her six cylinders and had her repaired. Anyway, the family thinks Dart has missed his calling and should request an interview with the Hallmark company as soon as possible.
Harriet sends Dart her best wishes for success at school and Toni Gale mentioned him in her prayers tonight. Dot is delighted that everyone thinks so highly of Dart, but not, of course, as highly as she does. How she wishes she could be with him for the train trip this weekend! She might learn more about trains that way, she says.
Now she responds to his lovely letter of June 24 when he was recalling that fine day when he received the long awaited letter with Dot’s answer to his proposal. “Perhaps you have some idea how thrilled I was when I got your letter asking me to become engaged to you. It wasn’t a complete surprise, but it was a new and completely wonderful thrill to read that letter over and over again. An unspeakable, heavenly, joy came to me that day and has remained with me ever since. It’s a joy that makes me perk up when I think that things are actually worse than they are. It’s the joy I feel when i first wake up and see your picture in the morning, knowing that someday soon, I’ll wake up and see you! Oh, Darling, we are certainly the most fortunate couple I’ve ever heard of or read about. We have a love that many people never experience. The bond between us isn’t just physical or sexual. It’s something far deeper, yet including both of those things. You’re as much a part of me as my heart. I love you beyond all expression.
The only complaint she has about her job is that the other day she got two mosquito bites, both of which became infected. The one by her eye was the worst, but she looks almost human now. “That is, as much as I ever have.”
She’s happy to hear about his happy reunion with Tom Reilly and hopes the two of them will be able to spend more time together. She also looks forward to entertaining his friends when she and Dart are married. Does Tom have a girlfriend?
Her stay in Greenwich has given her lots of opportunities to drive. She wants to get lots of practice in before September so she can do her share of driving when they go up to Sunapee.
Does he really think she’ll only be able to make $100 a month when they’re married? That seems too low to her, but maybe she can hang up a babysitting sign somewhere to earn extra cash. The only question would be, who would keep the coffee brewing while he studies? She guesses they’ll have to cross that bridge when it gets closer.
Are his parents concerned that El will be the only chaperone at Sunapee? It looks as though that’s their only hope right now. El asked her married friend to come up, but that friend has to work. It looks like September is too late in the year to get anyone else, so it’s El or no one.
El and her new beau Bud came home so she joined them to chew the fat (and a little leftover turkey) and now it’s 3:45 AM! Did she say she was going to bed early? I guess she meant early morning. Bud seems to be a nice guy. He came to Greenwich on Friday and will be heading home to Boston Sunday afternoon.
Dot has lots more to write, but it’ll have to wait until another day. Sleep beckons!