“The difference between your having daylight saving time and our not having it must be the difference of a day in the letter schedules. At any rate, for two days now I’ve received letters in the afternoon mailed before 2:30 in the afternoon the day before. Pretty good service for a bureaucratic, understaffed post office, isn’t it?”
Both his subsistence check and his PD paycheck arrived today. If he subtracts the $12.00 he owes in bills, and ignores the jar full of pennies on his bookcase, the net gain for the month of April in three bank accounts, cash, and checks is nearly $26.00. He’s pretty darned excited that their total assets total $422.99, even after all the clothing he’s been buying!
After removing wedding and honeymoon expenses, he thinks they’ll be able to open their joint account with about $250.00. His mother warns that it will take more money than he imagines to set up housekeeping, but that’s a higher total than he ever dreamed they’d have. I don’t think he’s counting cash wedding gifts or Dot’s savings into any of his calculations.
He had a whopper of a test in psychology and was “given” a 76% in Spanish. He has a D in that class, which is unacceptable, but he doesn’t know how he’ll bring it up.
In 25 minutes, they can say the wedding is next month. It’s been so much fun being engaged to her, but he’s mighty happy to see those days coming to and end!
# # #
The ferocious Spring thunderstorm outside her window makes Dot wish she and Dart were watching such an exhibit from the porch at Sunapee, wrapped in each other’s arms. She hopes they’ll have one stormy night at the lake during their honeymoon.
Today, her boss sent her to the town hall to copy down the names of all the town residents over the age of 19 who have died since 1945. It’s the same building that houses the marriage license office, so she stopped in to learn what Dart has to do about blood tests. He should ask his Cleveland doctor to send his blood sample to the official state laboratory (there’s just one in every state), accompanied by a Connecticut Marriage License Blood Test form. That will save him time and money when he gets to Greenwich.
She doesn’t feel that she should answer the question about whether Dart takes on that Sunday school class. She’s very proud that he was asked, and she thinks he’d make a great teacher of young boys, but he’d also make a fine worship companion for her. After she’s learned the ropes of the church and has settled in a bit, she was thinking about joining the choir, if they need new members. “Notice I didn’t say ‘singers,'” she quips. In short, he should do what feels right to him.
The blanket he inquired about had been her mother’s, but she thinks it’s theirs now, especially after she pleads her case to her mother. In spite of how much they love each other, she thinks they’ll need more than one blanket to keep warm in that cold attic apartment.
They now have a complete set of their silver-plated flatware. She asks that he not stop sending her box tops because Harriet, Andy, and Nancy have all decided to get themselves a set and she’d like to help them out.
Their sterling set is also growing. Aunt Mil and Uncle Ralph have completed the place setting that Jane started, and Aunt Ethyl and Uncle Bill are giving them a place setting. “Aren’t we the lucky ones, though? We don’t have much cause to complain, do we, Darling?”
Much to everyone’s surprise, the canvassing work in Greenwich will be done by a week from Saturday. She’d been hoping to work up until early June, but now she’ll have to hope for lots of babysitting jobs to keep the coffers full. “I still have several things to get that cost money.”
“We’ve got to make a decision about one thing before you come here in June. What are we going to do with the hundreds of letters we’ve collected during the 3-1/2 years we’ve been corresponding. I can’t bear to throw yours out and yet I have no idea how I would get them to Ohio, or what I would do with them once I got them there. Please come through with a brilliant suggestion of some kind.”
She’s so excited that he’ll be there in about six weeks! “Be sure to bring some old clothes with you ‘cuz you’ll be put to work that week before the wedding – like it or not. With all there is to do, we have no respect for guests. They’ll have to work just like the rest of us.”
She knows Dart is tired, so she suggests he turn over and let her give the back rub for a change.