Dart writes that today was a lovely day, made even more so by two lovely letters from a lovely little lady. He’ll try to answer at least one of them here.

There’s a movement afoot in Cleveland to unite all the small railroad fan clubs into a single, large organization. Dart doesn’t think it’ll work because some guys think their way of doing things is the only way, and some people want to charge big fees to belong. He’s quite content with the compatible little group he belongs to and thinks he’ll be happy to just stick with them.

How shocking that a girl she knew was expelled from school for smoking. He thinks that’s a high price to pay for a “drag on a nail.” He’s surprised Dot wasn’t expelled for dating a sailor!

He tells her about those kids he met in the park the other day. The 10-year old girl was named Francie and her young assistant was Bobby. There were two older boys – one of them Francie’s older brother – who were trying to get their old model airplane to fly. Francie  was a profane little philosopher, swearing like a sailor but shrugging off all of her brother’s insults. She told Dart that he must be pretty smart. When he asked her why she said that, she replied that dumb people don’t usually smile as much as he did. He was a bit smitten by this little character.

Does Dot think Chuckie Pecsok would be interested in having some photos of Dart’s trains? He has a few extras of some of the interurban cars he’s built. If I know Dart, he had more than a “few.” When I undertook the task of converting about 5,000 old slides of Dad’s to a digital format, I’d guess at least 2,000 of them were “portraits” of trains. The childhoods of my siblings and me were scarcely documented as thoroughly as all the trains he “met” over the years.

He was about to close the letter when he realized he hadn’t answered her question about why she frightened him sometimes. “I guess I’m not really frightened at your antics, but sometimes I can’t figger you out. There was that time, in Connecticut, when you dreamed that you were calling me and I, in Ohio, heard you call and jumped half-awake. There was the other time when you fell asleep on the dock at Sunapee and I tried to wake you up. I thought you were awake and we walked up to the house. Gosh, as I remember it, your laughter was almost hysterical, not at all like your usual laughter. And you kept saying ‘No, don’t! Don’t go!’ Then you woke up and couldn’t recall how you’d gotten up to the house. Gosh, I didn’t know just what to make of that. Maybe I’m reading too much New England Colonial literature.”

Now he’s through, except to tell her that he loves her – oh so very much.

#          #          #

It’s a very short note from Dot. She warns Dart to “look fast,” or he’ll miss it.

Today she cleaned her room and went for a ride with Jane. The trees are bedecked in their fall foliage and look beguiling in their colors.

Greenwich HS beat their biggest rival, Port Chester in football today. They’ve only been scored against once this season, placing them at the top of the  Fairfield County rankings.

“Darling, I love you, but I’m too tired to begin to tell you how much.”