Description
XIII Friday October 6 after breakfast Good morning, children Just a little more than time to tell you that it's a glorious morning and that I'm thinking of you. Had a funny breakfast just now - little shredded wheat tablets with evaporated milk, something that looked like hamburger and I guess was meant to be pork sausage (with ketchup) plus potatoes creamed with powdered milk, and the island version of coffee, which is not much stronger than water. But I had an excellent sleep last night (dreamed of you as I was dozing off in a manner that must have been similar to that in which I visited you recently) and could have eaten anything this morning. Odds and ends as I think of them - I had my tooth filled the other day (the one you noticed with the filling out) and also another which needed it and a third cleaned out around the gum. Don't put off going to the dentist too long, honey - but don't expect a great deal of work and worry about it, because there'll probably be less than you think. After the age of 20-22, as any dentist will tell you, the rate of decay drops considerably. I told you I had lunch with Chet Chard the other day. I did not especially like him. He's nice enough looking, clean-shaven, trim and all that sort of thing, but it was his manner I didn't like. He was sweepingly critical of things and people in a sort of offhand, foolishly smiling way that left me with a very empty feeling afterwards, as though nothing was really worthwhile except to further one's own ends if one could define them. Perhaps I exaggerate, because of course I am just giving a spot impression. At any rate I liked him less well than Betty, who's not my ideal of a woman but who's at least natural, for the right [pg 2] and friendly. Chet has a curious idea about wanting Betty to stay in Boulder because he likes to visualize her and come back to her in circumstances which he's familiar with*. Before your letter mentioning Betty's idea about coming to Carmel reached me, Chet spoke of her having written him about it and expressed his disapproval in a roundabout sort of way. I may possibly see him again - I’d like to figure him out a little better. But there are others I’d rather be with and if my time is limited I'll skip it. He has a cottage on Waikiki (a number of our Boulder friends have moved to that vicinity - I can't blame them for that if they’re here for several months) and has asked me to come to dinner After supper I feel so healthy and relaxed tonight! In the sun this afternoon, with my shirt off as long as I thought I could stand, and then a swim b.a. in the ocean….I was thinking how much fun it would be to get off somewhere with you and live like that, with complete freedom - funny, as I was walking back along a dirt road I almost reached out to take your hand - and then, darling, instead of feeling lonely because you aren't here I felt good pretending that I was holding hand walking *It wasn't the desire, which I can well enough understand, but the seeming tenacity with which he nourished it as though he was afraid to have it otherwise. But he would certainly not put it that way. [pg 3] with you and knowing that when we are together again it will seem altogether natural and not as though we've been apart a long time. The room I'm writing in (the one I told you about in my last letter) is full now, though several have left to play poker in a game room in a separate little building between here and the tents (also equipped with a beer and coke-stocked electric refrigerator). Those who remain are all reading magazines or writing letters home - mostly the latter. Back to your six letters, before I get two or three more on our return to the office tomorrow evening - Glad you liked the little phone, honey-there was a [teal?] phone model but it wasn't nearly so recognizable for what it was and I liked this one better - it may have to do in place of the real thing for the time being as I'm not sure when it will be possible for me to phone you. Believe me, darling, I'll never waste the opportunity if it comes up. And there's no danger of missing you because everything is by appointment ahead, and the telephone company gets ahold of you and ascertains whether you'll be home before they'll give me the appointment - Sometime later on - and maybe Wendy can make noises for me. I've forgotten what the book package your sending me is about - is it something I asked you for before I left, a birthday present, or what? I'm so glad our house is well-equipped with everything and that the books are good and that the radio will be back soon - All those little things help. Let me know how the [?] of the Cub and the carriage has turned out and whether your allotment check has [pg 4]reached you. I was pleased and proud at the time of several of your letters (9:30 or 10 pm) and glad that, even though you’re sometimes lonely, you’re not afraid any more above all things - keep busy! I know it must be hard when Wendy means staying home and yet doesn't give you enough to do herself. Remember my suggestion in the letter answering yours of last Saturday, sweetie, and if they are inadequate, keep three other things in the back of your head - a) When you just can't think, feel desolate and blank and wretched, force yourself to seek somebody's company - don't stay alone for any moment that you aren't absolutely sure you can take it. And talk, yourself if you have to, but b) each time try to make yourself interested in the other person and shift the conversation that way. If it will help, make a game of it by continuing to write me about people you meet and meanwhile find out as much about them as you can to be able to tell me more. I'll love hearing it. c) Henry reminded me of something the other night that I’d almost forgotten and that's important: Without being fickle or choosy about your everyday relationships, you have to use discrimination in your real friendships and actually cultivate those people who represent worthwhile things as you see them. Such friendships have to be cultivated as does anything worth having. Haven't finished reviewing your letters but it's time to go to bed (I've been to a lousy movie since beginning tonight) and I guess this about as many pages as one [?] will support. Good night, my darlings - I look forward eagerly to more news from you tomorrow. Warren
