Today’s offering from Dot starts with a sassy little get-well card, done in a kind of Brooklyn accent. She chose it so Dart would be reminded of the Brooklyn Boys in his company. Next comes a stunning pencil sketch of a glamorous woman, drawn by Dot’s roommate Andy. She’s sending it to Dart as a temporary pin-up girl until “the real thing comes along.” Finally, we get to the actual letter, which Dot is writing from study hall on a Sunday night.
She describes her day where she did “nothing of consequence,” including her K.P. duty preparing a Sunday dinner of roast beef, mashed potatoes, squash and graham cracker pie. She tells a cute story of cleaning out her dresser drawers: “Judging from what I found it was about time. When I got down to the newspaper liners, all I could find was the outside edge and mice tracks all over the place. Looking a little further, I found a note saying ‘Please clean these out soon. We’ve eaten all the good part of the paper. You see, we don’t like the crusts.'”
She goes on to tell about the upcoming tradition of February graduation of last year’s seniors who have completed their eight-month practicum. The former seniors return for prom on Friday night, bringing dates if they can find them. (There’s a war on, you know.) After the dance, they return to their old cottages and occupy their former rooms. Current residents must either double up or sleep on the floor. Dot has been elected by her roommates to take the floor. Saturday brings a pancake breakfast for the “old girls,” served by the faculty. Dot writes, “Saturday night is the Alumnae banquet with more eats (for them – probably Jello for us.) And finally, “if any of the poor bloated girls are left, they receive their ‘release’ from Andrews Institute sometime Sunday night.”
As part of the celebratory weekend, the glee club will sing several numbers, and “right now, we smell like Roquefort cheese!”
She tells Dart it’s okay for him to be polite to all his beautiful nurses, but she asks that he mark himself “TNT” so they don’t get too friendly.
One quick observation – Dot writes a line on the back of the card she sent where she issues an order that he get well quickly. Then she adds a quote which reminds me of the mind-over-matter woman who is my mother. “Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
