Dart’s letter is a sweet mix of newsy and nice. He mentions that the model railroad meeting was held at Homer’s house last night, making just four weeks since he and Dot and Burke and Marnie went to a football game together.
The club meeting was a lots of fun. Homer had rented a movie projector and borrowed some great railroad films from the library. For Dart, the best part of the meeting may have been the tasty meal Mrs. Singer had waiting for the gang. The program must have inspired the boys because they’re now planning a RR fan trip on an abandoned interurban track near Youngstown. He hopes he get his dad to come along on that trip because it could do the old boy some good. Dart remembers stories his father told him about riding in the cabs of railroad cars that traveled around Cincinnati when he was a boy. The trip may be too much for the senior Dart, but he’d probably enjoy it. Dart also asked Tom Riley if he’d like to go. Tom seemed delighted, but will have to check on family plans before he commits. How Dart wishes Dot could go along, too. These trips are always lots of fun and provide beautiful scenery and living conversation.
Dart hung around Homer’s house helping to clean up, and then just shooting the bull. Homer seemed highly honored that Dart asked him to be in the wedding next June and he eagerly accepted.
“Today I took a long walk up in the Park. Had a real pleasant afternoon of memories. Seemed like you were tramping right along with me, and I surely wish you were. There were some kids playing with a gas model airplane and I sat and talked with them for about an hour. Dottie, let’s see that our kids treat their little brothers and sisters nicely. I liked the kids, but the oldest one (15) was awfully mean to his little sister. She and a little boy sat with me and we had a good time. They were nice kids.”
In spite of being tired when she got home from work today, his mother was happy to use the tickets that Guy and Ann had given them to go hear a broadcast of the orchestra at Severance Center. They enjoyed it very much. George Szell, the new conductor, seems to be doing a great job, in Dart’s opinion.
He marvels at the coincidence of her calling out his name in a dream, and at the same time he awoke to the sound of her voice calling him. “Sometimes you frighten me.”
Tom Riley was over at the house tonight and they had a grand time swapping tales. Somehow along the way, Dart’s managed to catch another cold. “Good night, Darling. I wish you were here to put your head on my shoulder and sing to me.”
# # #
Dot’s note is bright and breezy, as always. She luxuriated in a late sleep-in today and then got up to wash her hair and do some chores. She was torn between listening to the Army vs Columbia football game and raking the bountiful leaves in the yard. She decided she could do both by placing her radio in the kitchen window, cranked up loud enough to hear. “I managed to rake three blisters into my hand. There’s not a manufactured scent anywhere that can come near the wholesome close-to-nature smell of fall and burning leaves. Next to spring and summer, I like fall best.”
There was a house full for dinner yesterday. Dot’s aunts Bess and Nummy came down from Pittsfield to visit Dot’s cousin Dot R. and her children. Bess’s son Pearce also joined the party. It looks like our Dot has been drafted into housekeeper mode again. Her cousin has been sick and is unable to manage her house in New Rochelle and all the kids. Dot will be taking the train down after shorthand classes and chorus so she can be available in the mornings to get the kids off to school and pack their lunches. Then she’ll take the train back to Greenwich for work. She’s a little miffed at the inconvenience, “but I won’t mind that much if I can be of some service to Dot.”
After finding some movie passes that someone gave her dad three years ago, she and Jane went to see a film called “Sister Kenny,” starring Rosalind Russell. She enjoyed it very much and thinks it would be a great one for Dart to take his folks to see.
She claims she can’t hold her eyes open another minute, and to prove it, she writes a scrawl at the bottom of the page with her eyes closed. “My eyes may be shut now, but I see what I found when I found you!”