Nov. 5, 1958
Dear Pat,
Well we have returned from a very gay weekend at MHC. and missed you. Your telegram was a great hit and your calls and interest were muchly appreciated by Hildie [perhaps Hilda Brody]. I don't know quite how to go about telling you about Show. One can't help making comparisons, and not necessarily just with ours. It was great fun while one was seeing it. Debbie did a wonderful job with people who knew nothing and the blocking was excellent. She really got some of the kids to put on a real good show. But I found on looking back on it the next day, it was all very vague in my mind. They didn't have any real singers, conseguently [sic] theyhad [sic] no real ballad, other wise the songs were pretty good. The plot was a little weak to say the least and got progressively worse. This however is often the case with Junior Shows, I find. The scenery was very weak and unimpressive but I gather that Gerry just didn't feel like going all out however it was, (please excuse the old familiar word) adequate. I hate to seem so critical and please don't let it get back to any juniors, but that is the trouble with us people who know even just a little, we get awfully critical.
Speaking of the field, D.C. is doing Stage Door for fall production, which is sort of too bad. Also there is a possibility that B. Kutner will direct it. Ellen and I are thinking of going up for it. I think it would be fascinating to see a D.C. production that I had had nothing to do with after the past three years.
Life in New York is wonderful and we are wonderfully ensconced in a wonderful apartment. It is my sister's and she is away for the winter and may turn it over to us. It is big, cheap, fun, beautifully located in the Village, on a very lovely respectable street. We have three rooms, two fireplaces that work, a hall, a john with the john placed on a small riser, painted bright orange with a canopy on top. We call it the throne room. We also have a small step-up kitchen. We have acquired two kittens, one a real "cat" right from the alley, the other a beautiful maltese. They are really great fun[.]
I hope that some time in the not too distant future you will be in New York and will come see us, you can even stay with us.
Your post-grad life and studies sound like fun, it is still hard to believe that people can do all these fun things in a strictly academic way.
We went out for a real meal with Mr. A. while we were at college. He is fine, but no longer has the M.G. but instead has a large glittery station wagon. I guess that is all the news for now. Oh, I have a very uninteresting job with the River Brand Rice Co. but it pays well and is five minutes walk from the apartment.
I don't know how long I can stick it out but only time will tell.
See you soon, I hope,
Love
MudsieP.S. thanks for the pictures
Well, obviously I couldn't let a whole letter go to you without putting in my 2¢. So how the hell are you? As Mud has said, things are great, even school, if you don't think about it too much. News that M. forgot: Shep is having her troubles again, i.e. her mother has been in a home, but is about to be "expelled" because she is too hard to handle.
So now I'm going to get down to the important stuff. Just what were the results of another summer at Orleans. Since I really want to know I am making no attempt at subtl
ety. (As we both know you can confide or not as you see fit, but please understand that my interest is meant in good faith, or something like that.) I truly hope that you and the man in your life came to some decision or other. I'm not going to preach but don't beat your head against a wall. I speak from experience. On the 21st of June, 1958 William John Morgan Gilbert, Yale '58 was married to a Madelaine Harris, Vassar '?? whom he met sometime around the 1st of May. Good fortune sometimes comes well disguised. Remember that!!!Well, there's nothing more on my mind. As a matter of fact I have less and less of intellectual import on my mind every day. But anyway I must get back to group psychology. BARF!!!
Luv, etc and so forth
Ellen