Monday, May 5, 1952
Dear Andrew and John,
We received three or four letters from you two last week. They are breaking more records air mailing--for instance, two of Andrew's were postmarked April 27 and received on May 2--in just five days. I'm glad you brought up the rubber stamp you use on the letters. That's just one of many things I've meant to ask about. We've saved everyone of your letters and for some reason the majority of them seem to come on a Monday or Thursday because it seems that is when I'm most found reading them as I pick up something to eat about 10 p.m. coming home from school. I make mental notes of particulars I want to ask you about and then promptly forget them as I write these letters from the office. So, if I've overlooked any questions maybe you'd better ask again or I'll start to take notes as I read.
It is not summerish yet but we had beautiful weather over the weekend. We didn't go anywhere Saturday. After an 8 a.m. hair cut I started on the jungle in the back yard. I cut half with the mower and used the golf-club-type cutter on most of the remainder till the blisters got too big; then I weeded the roses and cut the front hedge and ended up bailing the cellar. That crazy cellar is something. After the first five days of the deluge I told you about, everyone was complaining about water in the basement - but not us, dry as could be. Then, in a space of about five hours on the sixth day, we have six inches. I don't know if I told you but I've found out after all these years what it is. It's the water table as they call it and the old wells. That's why flash flood and hard rain doesn't bother us until the ground gets saturated near the surface and then it'll force its way through steel. With daylight savings now in effect, it's bright till almost nine o'clock. For some reason I wasn't so tired Saturday and sat through Show of Shows and the Gunther's movie. Show of Shows was good as ever, especially Imogene's imitation of Ima Sumac, if that's the way you say it. The English movie was Flesh and Blood with Richard Todd. Not bad, but what we call typical English - they went through three plots in the first fifteen minutes. It begins with Richard Todd as a young genius scientist in an attic. His doctor comes and tells him he has only months to live. A few minutes later a gal rushes in and begs him to marry her because he has her pregnant. We follow the, girl home and find she is the young sister of the doctor, who is well off. Late that night they receive word Richard Todd has died: she faints. Next scene is nurse running to tell doctor it's a little girl and the doctor's sister dies in this childbirth. Eighteen years pass, the doctor has brought the girl up and she's fooling around with a young fellow who is studying medicine with the doctor, as his apprentice, and who was a kid in knee pants - the son of the woman who ran the boarding house where Richard Todd died. So this eighteen year old gal, if you're following me, is Richard Todd's daughter. Well, she comes home from a dance one night after the doctor has gone to bed and this apprentice is compounding some medicines in the study. She tells him she is going to marry a captain which angers the fellow and he tells her he will expose the letters she has written him. She fixes him a drink with half a bottle of his poison and that ends him. Two years pass and she has been acquitted but has a baby which we haven't figured out yet but presumably the apprentice's, and is still living with her uncle, the doctor. The mother of the apprentice is now the doctor's housekeeper or apparently has been for some years prior to his death. Each time she meets the girl in the hall all she does is stare at her. So, one nice windy night the girl walks out the front door and over a cliff leaving the baby who, in the next scene, turns out to be Richard Todd, again a medical student and would-he genius and this is where the picture really begins as all the above has taken place in approximately fifteen to twenty minutes.
This letter is a sloppy mess, as usual, but I try to get in finished during lunchtime.
Sunday, after church, breakfasts and naps, it was 1:30 and Ann suggested going to see Virginia and the new baby in South Baltimore. So, we found 1802 Light St. OK and Charlie opened the door for us. I can't say I don't like him but Ann's comment was that he and Frank would make a good pair. All he did was criticize Virginia and say she "gabs all the time and gets nothing done" which is a lie as the place was spotless and so were the kids. Virginia was so glad to see us. The baby had just been baptized at noontime and they said Dave and Lid, the godparents, had left only a few moments before. Other news -- George is continuing with P & G but now has a bar of his own on the side. And, in Virginia's words, the big scandal is that Bill and Eleanor are separating. She is getting the divorce to marry someone else. The funny thing, Virg says, neither blames the other; Bill says she's wonderful and she says Bill has been swell. We stayed over an hour and a half. Bonnie is getting along fine. She and Stevie would love each other, then slug either other by turns; but they all got on fine for the most part. They bought a new Ford a few weeks ago. As Charlie put it, their other two cars, besides the six trucks, were a '29 Ford and a '34 Chevie which the smoke hounds used to sleep in and, still quoting him, as they were all covered with sores he was afraid the babies might pick up something so they got a new car they could lock. I don't mean to pan him so much but Virginia seems too good for the guy. While we were down in that section I drove on to Fort McHenry but we didn't get out of the car and then out as far as Sherwood Gardens to ride around once through the mob. The morning papers say 40,000 visited there yesterday afternoon alone. Then we headed home for supper.
The little ones watched film funnies as Ann started the cooking and she then let Mike and Kathy go out back where she could see them while I was putting things on the table. Resurrecting things, Kathy must have started up the side steps over Bellis' and someone must have been in the porch swing. Mike was down in the yard and he says Kathy fell backwards. We didn't know this at the time. It seemed only about half a minute from the time they went out when Kathy, without tears, told Ann "I fell, Wommie". Ann asked if she hurt herself and she said he did not but came in the back door. I started to help her off with her coat and what a mess. She had hit the back center of her head and I'm not sure yet what broke but it must have been a small artery because it was spurting. Her dress and undershirt were so soaked with blood you could wring them out and still it came. Ann went all to pieces but I got her to hold a cloth to the wound and ran for the car where I had a tin of special antiseptic clotting powder. By the time I got back Mrs. Bellis was in and helping. I also got gauze and tape and wrapped the head and we kept her awake for an hour or so to watch her. She was calm throughout but the bump that finally came up was as large as a golf ball. And that's how it stands this morning. There is a large scab and I have advised Ann not to wash or pull the hair till I'm sure it has set good and won't open again.
Every time the word Korea pops up in conversation or on TV Mike automatically comes out with "that's where Jody and Drew-Drew are" and Kathy with a big head nod and her closest word to yes says she still remembers you. With Stevie you will have no trouble at all. He loves everything, animal, vegetable or mineral, without hesitation. When I ran to the drugstore for the gauze last evening I saw the Scannells waiting for a cab and did my good deed for the day by offering our services after I patched up Kathy. There were five of them and they don't know when Anne will be out of the hospital.
We voted this morning for the primaries. First time they've used voting machines and they've moved our precinct to the Catonsville Elementary school. Took only half a minute to vote and five minutes to explain to both women I wasn't you, John, as the one kept getting her pages stuck with your name.
More later.
END OF LETTER
Editor's notes:
Charles teaches night school at the Baltimore Institute.
Virginia is Charles' cousin and Charlie is her husband.
George, Dave and Bill are brothers of Virginia.
Jody and Drew-Drew are Mikes affectionate names for John and Andrew.
Ann Scannell is a neighbor and is in the hospital for an amputated arm.
The Bellis' live next door.
Next Posting: May 12, 1952
Copyright 2012 Stephen A Conner
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