Dart acknowledges Dot’s long airmail letter that arrived today and wishes he had time to do it justice, but he’s buried alive in assignments that are due tomorrow. After enumerating the myriad reasons he’s under stress, he warns her “You’ll have to soothe my shattered nerves in the week before we’re married. That is, if my chains, leather collar, muzzle, and straight-jacket don’t do it.”
Then he writes the first indication that we may be missing a letter from Dot. “I’m sorry you have troubles, Dot, but you’re free to unload ’em on me. Just be careful of my ‘broad’ shoulders. They come off with my coat.” I certainly don’t recall any letters this month that would have indicated Dot is plagued with “troubles.” Indeed, her letters have seemed chipper, upbeat and positive.
He mentions that Mrs Wolff “sold” him a corsage of white carnations, but he guesses the white roses were prettier. He’s happy the Greenwich florist was kind to her. I surmise from this statement that he ordered her an Easter corsage that the local florist upgraded to roses.
And then it begins…a multi-page rant about the trouble with the country. It begins innocuously enough when he expresses sadness at her “labor” trouble. I guess that means the dreaded telephone company strike has begun. The conversation morphs immediately into a tirade about the moral decline of the nation. He puts the blame on the growth of big business and then on the surge of big unions. He hopes that things will get better someday, but he’s skeptical. “It’s further evidence of what we used to call ‘moral standards’ being shot to hell. He further rants that decent, democracy-loving people are being bullied by corrupt politicians, unscrupulous labor leaders and selfish, bigoted businessmen.
Pages later, he’s still going on about a “premium being set on mediocrity and laziness.” As in so many wild rantings, specifics are few and venom is plentiful I’m really not at all sure about what set him off, nor what exactly he means by all this. I guess I’ll chalk it up to fatigue. What’s clear to me is that the raving spitfire who wrote this letter bears little resemblance to the man I knew as “Dad.” I honestly believe that if Dart had not had the good fortune to meet and marry Dot, he might have hardened into a brittle, bitter, anti-social cynic. Dot provided the positivity and humor that kept his dark side in check. Conversely, he provided a certain gravitas that helped deepen her world view. What a perfect pair these very different people made.
In the end, he thanks Dot for sharing her feelings with him. He thinks it’s a pity that she feels forced to quit her job at the telephone company, but he supports whatever decision she makes.
# # #
In contrast to Dart’s letter, Dot’s is full of cheery news. Eleanor has ordered the bridesmaids dresses for both of them, after taking Harriet and her own bridesmaid Vonnie to give their opinions. From the sketches they made for Dot, she thinks they’re very pretty. The color theme for the wedding is rainbow, so each of the “maids” will wear a different pastel color of the taffeta gown.
She hesitates to break bad news to Dart, but the wedding has had to be postponed…by 30 minutes, The start time will be 8:00 because June 20, being the longest day of the year, puts sunset so late that the full effect of the candlelight ceremony would be lost if they started too early. She hopes Dart can stand to wait an extra half hour to make her his wife.
Also, the invitations have been ordered. Her share came to a whopping $30.00. How happy she is that almost all the expenses are being cut in half between her and her sister. Dot hopes she’ll stay married for a very long time because these weddings are too expensive to do one again any time soon.
This morning, if he recalls, she was supposed to have a job interview at the YWCA. The woman who was due to conduct the interview suddenly remembered that she had a meeting out of the office at that same time, so she stopped by the house at 10:30! Dot was eating breakfast in her pj’s with her hair up in pin curls when the woman arrived. In spite of all that, she was offered the dance chaperone job for Friday, and if all goes well with that, she’ll start the full-time job!
Reading about this whole incident made me laugh out loud! Is this typical life in a small town, or was this truly a remarkable event? But, there’s more. Later that evening, as Dot was sitting down to dinner with her friend Nancy, the YWCA woman stopped by again! She was hoping Dot would agree to do her a favor tomorrow night. It seems that 14 girls and their chaperones were scheduled to go into NYC tomorrow night to see the ice show at Radio City Music Hall and then have dinner at the Hotel Plaza. One of the chaperones cancelled at the last minute, and Dot has been asked to step in. There’s no pay for this gig, but her dinner and the show will be paid by the Y. Naturally, Dot jumped at the chance. “Say, maybe I’ve been wrong, keeping a steady job this winter,” she quips.
On top of all of this, she saw an ad in today’s paper for an “information taker” for one of the town offices. It’s a temp position lasting only a few weeks, but she’s going to look into in tomorrow. “No harm trying to have a choice in jobs from now until June.”
She bought a gallon of paint today to finish painting the wall of the third floor. “After I finish the walls, I can have my pick of painting the trim on the second floor, painting the front bathroom, painting the kitchen, or hanging the wall paper in the front hall. I’ll have to sleep on it awhile.”
If I know Dot, I suspect she’ll have a hand in all of the aforementioned jobs! The Chamberlains are pulling out all the stops to spruce up their home for the upcoming nuptials. And to think they put all this money and effort into a rented house!
She and Nancy went to see a corny movie called “The Man I Love” tonight. “It was all I could do to sit though it. I’ve lost my taste for movies, and I’m not sorry. Life is so much more interesting as real people live it. And love is ever so much more thrilling when I’m the one doing the loving and being loved!”
She doubts very much that she would think less of him if she saw his messy room. If he could see hers right now, he’d feel better about his.
She can’t wait to model some of the lingerie for him. She’s especially excited by the beautiful set her mother made her; the skirt is six yards wide around the bottom!