Monday
Dear Pat,
So you're going to spend the summer at Allenberry. Well, I guess we lose a daughter and gain a bathroom again. I'll bet there'll be plenty of times you will wish you hadn't made that decision when other things come up that you want to do. However, you made your bed, now eat it.
In spite of your impassioned defense of theatre people, I don't want you to ignore everything Mother said. I agree that there are many fine people in the theatre, young and old. However, you cannot ignore the fact that some are not what they should be. As a matter of fact, I have been acquainted with some of them -- and not over the bridge table. Part of it is due to the tendency of certain persons, possessing artistic talent of one kind or another, to feel less bound by moral standards than ordinary mortals. In show business, which is often a nomadic existence, the normal restraints are absent perhaps more than in the other arts. Some individuals, freed of their normal inhibitions, haven't the moral fibre to exercise self-restraint. It is this small percentage who have created the bad reputation of theatre people.
It is all right for you to defend show people. Just don't be too naive in the event some wolf in cheap clothing should come along.
I don't know how our trip for parents' day will work out. I have a list of motels along the Parkway and I expect to keep checking my list with a flashlight while Mother drives. If we don't find a vacancy some place, I suppose we'll have to sleep in the car. Maybe we can get arrested for vagrancy and get to sleep in a police station. We may not arrive before you have to leave for class, so tell us where you will be so we can come and OBSERVE.
I plan to stop at a motel near Hartford in the morning, on the way up and engage a room for Saturday night. When we leave that night, we probably will encounter less traffic dragging through Bog Meadow et al. at that time of night. Even if we sleep late Sunday morning, we will be past Hartford and should be able to make it home in good time.
The success of the whole idea hinges on whether I can pry Mother loose from the Gazette an hour or so early on Friday so we can get a good start. Hope to see you soon.
Love,
DadP.S. Mother just broke a cable on the garage door. Fortunately she was on the outside ofthe [sic] door at the time. Guess I must try to fix it tonight, yet. No sleep for the weary.