Monday, Sept. 8, 1952
Dear Andrew and John,
Got your letter of Sept. 1 this morning, John, and "Singin' In The Rain" was the picture Ann and I went to see in April when we went to Pierre's, the first and last time I was in the Century since 1949. We thought it was swell, too, and just the thing after a good meal, but the critics didn't give it much. It was also the first time since I saw Debbie Reynolds and liked her, too. I'm getting the movie section of the Times off to you this week and will be able to do so for the next six weeks till we lose contact for a while. They tell me Gene Connor is back and that they gave him a furlough immediately before release so looking at the calendar we thought maybe you'd make it by Thanksgiving which is either November 20 or 27.
After saying nobody was coming to see us, it was good to have Virgnia, Dee and Connie drop in on Ann last Thursday. I was at school but I hear then didn't get there till 9 o'clock after driving past the place for an hour or so. I got home at 10:15 because of the darn Thursday night traffic and they stayed till eleven. They brought some Pepsies and a box of Turtles which Ann indulged in but her greatest joy was the bottle of sherry as the third gift, We got real kick out of Connie's tale of wondering why you two were making all the fuss over five Korean women and then she found out that by five lousy tomatoes you actually meant five lousy tomatoes.
We came in to Towson Saturday morning for our weekly food shopping and patronized an A & P Supermarket. Towson has everything but parking space so next week I think that it will be back to Parkville which is one mile closer. That new Hutzler store at the York - Joppa crossroads is almost finished and will be something. There's about ten acres of parking space to the northward, on the other side of the road and entrance to Hutzler's from the parking area will be under the roadway and through a complete Edmondson Village like lineup of stores under the road By that I mean the parking lot is that much lower than the road and Hutzler's on the other side. We were back home at 11 a.m. and there we stayed for the day. I had them drop off the power lawn mower and cut that strip of grass you see in picture No. 1 to the front and side of the house but it took longer than by hand as I had to take the mower apart twice when it clogged--fuel line. After dinner Arlene's Uncle Orr dropped by the house to say hello. You've both met him--about my age with black curly hair; has a son, Jack, and a new daughter seven months with cheeks twice as big as Kathy's used to be. He's in the plumbing business, as I believe I mentioned before, and took another look at the heating system. We had just been talking about Show of Shows coming back so Arlene got herself invited to spend Saturday night with Orr and he brought her back Sunday noontime. We sat in the living room talking and Ann caught up on her sewing and you could tell and she readily admitted she missed the TV. Arlene said it was only fair and Pearson told me the same thing this morning. Sunday at 12:30 WMAR (Channel 2 to brief you for when you get back) had a movie I would like to see again: Barry Fitzgerald and Thomas Mitchell in "The Long Voyage Home"; lasted about two hours. Sunday afternoon Earl Clapsaddle dropped by again to buy the synchronizer for my Leica. He called up Saturday night and I promised it to him, thinking I would get cash as Ann had to take out of the food money for Arlene's shoes on Saturday: they have to wear a uniform type obtained in Towson. Sunday Earl gives me a check.
Abe called Sunday around noon to say he had been out to see us and we weren't home. I asked when and it was Saturday morning at 9:30 and we had gone in to Towson at 8:45 a.m. He said his father is better but he can't leave him and Buzz is fixing up a bathroom on the first floor while they are thinking about renting out the second floor. He again promised to bring Father Farrell out and we still haven't heard from this Father Doran at St. John's. Guess you won't find another bunch like that at St. Mark's. The girls said there are four permanent priests there now and 8 Masses every Sunday.
Sunday afternoon at 4 we went in to Parkville for a couple of magazines and some cleaning fluid Ann needed. We were back at 5 but no one had been there as I left a note on the door. I forgot to tell you we went out the back door to the garage on Saturday morning and we don't have a key as yet to the back, which is a Yale lock. Someone had hooked the front screen door and when we got back we were locked out--doors and windows. I managed to pull open the bottom part of the screen and get my hand in far enough with the key to unlock the front door, then put the metal leaf rake in to push up blindly till I struck the hook on the screen door, so it wasn't so bad. But Ann in the meantime was in Baldwin's bedroom getting out on the roof to see if the bedroom windows were all locked. We got the kids bathed and bedded early but they wouldn't go to sleep so we all retired early and Arlene started to school in earnest this morning. I was going to wait and see if the bus picked up her or her up and it did at five minutes to eight. We'll have to see when she got to school and what time she gets home.
I heard Mike bragging about you on Saturday in a sort of way. The Baldwin Boy next door and his sister come over our place but we haven't let Mike or Kathy go over there as we have a much larger yard. I was working on the mower and this kid, Marty, said he had a pony at his grandfather's; Mike countered with the fact he saw a pony once; then Marty had a coke and ice cream, he said, and Mike had a Pepsi and ditto; finally Marty said he was at Ocean City for two weeks and Mike came back with "Jody and Drew-Drew are in Korea".
Kathy is something too. She'll talk and talk two inches from your nose with those big blue eyes and dark lashes going and she can invent stories to make Aesop ashamed of himself. One of her favorite games with Mike is that Mike will come at her with his teeth showing and claws up announcing "I'm a tiger". She'll ask "do you bite or love?" He mostly says love and they go into a clinch but if he says "I bite", you can hear her scream for nothing at all way across the valley. Ann will say, "I'm exhausted" and Arlene and I come back with "do you bite or love".
Ann says again to extend her apologies for not writing but the house work so far has kept her running. When Arlene can get home a little earlier it will help but last week from Tuesday to Friday, Arlene and I came at the same time--about 5:45. The place stays much cleaner but it's the getting everything settled and falling back in laundry and ironing that has her on the jump.
Here's hoping they have an Indian Summer over there and that you'll get out before winter sets in.
END OF LETTER
Editor's Notes:
The Baldwins live in the other half of duplex that is The Inn.
Next Posting: September 11, 1952
Copyright 2012 Stephen A Conner
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