[Some paragraph breaks added for ease of reading.]Wednesday.
Dear Bessie,
So much has happened since I left you that I hardly know where to begin.
First I want to thank you very much for sending my things home. It was simply grand of you to do it and I certainly appreciated it. I got the coat and umbrella. Also I got the letter you sent to N.J. I am not going to any summer school this summer but will probably go next summer. I still have two credits to make up. It has been quite cool up to a few days ago now it is simply scorching. Inkie has just been clipped and he looks like a little black seal.
I had a grand time visiting Wy & Martha. I slept a lot and made up for lost sleep. Do you remember me talking about the Kaufman, the Dr who is now living in New Mexico - well while I was in N.J. mother wrote & said that Dr's son Wayne had been killed in an airplane crash - It was when that big bomber crashed in California. Wayne would have graduated from training school the day of his funeral. Dr brought his ashes back for a military funeral and it was all very tragic.
While in New York I went to the fair with Wy and Martha for an afternoon and I saw Jane Vorhaus. I took Mary Alexander to see "The Man who Came to Dinner"[.] It was very good. She took me out to dinner one night. I got a darling pair of white shoes - summer suede - heel & toe out and perforated all over and huge round fluffy bows on the toes. My favorite kind. Mary had a pair too. I also got a blue gingham dress with a huge [?] dress to wear at the Holsts.
I left New York Thursday night & got to the Holsts Friday night. Grete & Henry met me. Oh, Bessie - we were so scared it would rain - Grete had a garden wedding and they have 1200 peonie [sic] bushes in their yard and the peonies were gorgeous - just at their prime. There was kind of an aisle between the bushes and at the end by the river they made a cross out of chicken wire, and stuck pure white peonies in the wire so that it became a white peony cross.
Grete wore a white satin dress and a short veil. The wind blew the veil over Chuck's head just as he was saying the crucial words. Henry played the Wedding March on the victrola in the upstairs window and we could hear it beautifully in the garden. I wore my pink dress & turban. Honest to gosh there were a lot of Chuck's relatives and a lady wept all over me during the ceremony and I could see Mrs. Holst wiping her eyes and I nearly cried myself. Mrs. Holst is so sweet. In fact I love the whole family.
Afterwords [sic] we had champagne punch and cake down by the river the wedding cake was a dark fruit cake iced and there was a coconut cream cake. (I peeled the coconuts). Mrs. Holst made some little Janine wedding cakes and they were delicious. Nearly everyone had cameras and they were clicking all over the place. Henry took me dancing that night[.]
I left the next morning because it was father's [sic] Day and I wanted to get home. I traveled from 8:30 in the morning till 8:30 at night and it was certainly swell to get home. I had to go to Ann Arbor on the bus to catch the fast train which gets to Chicago barely in time to get the Zephyr. It took me nearly all morning to get to Ann Arbor. I got so excited when we crossed the Mississippi.
Dad, Mom, Aunt Coco, Clete [?], Phoebe, Edna & Mary Stiles were at the train to meet me. Clete has since gone to Chicago for another job. I haven't seen Art since I've been home. I hear he has another girl and I'm glad. I hope she appreciates him more than I did. By the way Cornelius is back again! He is the one who used to bother me so much. Mother is going to give him heck if he comes anymore.
The family were glad to see me and Mother has had my room done over to surprise me and it is lovely. It is completely in hydrangea bue & white. The wood work is a shade lighter than the wall paper. The curtains are white organdy & hang clear to the floor and are not tied back. The bed spread is white chenille and the chair backs & seats are white chenille. Mother made a white rug for the floor and Aunt Cora brought me a white rug from Mexico. It has little black birds in it & it is right in front of my black fireplace.
The dresser scarves are white and I have a new white lamp on the table beside my bed. Mother had a rose bowl beside my bed with a lovely pink rosebud in it[.] The pictures on the walls are either pink or blue - oh, it is a heavenly room! I forgot - I love white window shades also.
When I reached home I found an invitation to Cherre [?] Esan's wedding and to the reception - whee! I didn't know a soul invited to the reception & Mom & Dad were only invited to the church[.] Well, anyway, Mother informed me that Jack & Bergere Henney were coming the next Saturday & I was to have a dinner party for them Monday. Chuck [?] was to be married Sunday afternoon.
Well I spent the week before swimming with Phoebe & seeing my friends etc. Wednesday we were busy with the Kelley's - Do you remember Kathleen Kelley - well her grandmother died in Chicago and as Will Kelley who is Katie's uncle, is one of my father's oldest friends - we had the whole Kelly family over for lunch after the funeral. Katie stayed in Chicago but her father was here. Katie came to see me last Saturday on her way to California.
Well Sunday I went to the wedding with mother & Dad the next Sunday * while we were standing outside in the church waiting to go in. Chuck & Jack came by going into the church & they stopped to talk to me. The boys wore their uniforms but the users weren't entirely soldiers. In fact there was only one, so they just wore ordinary suits. I found some friends of mothers who were going to the reception so I went along with them.
At the reception Jack introduced me to Scotty Case who had just graduated from West Point. He was one of the ushers. I never did meet him at the Point. He was wonderful, Bessie. I could really like him given a chance. I liked him even better than Robbie! He is tall and blond & wears glasses. He was so nice to me. He took me out in the dining room to eat & we had quite a conversation. He is going to be in the Cavalry Division in Texas. He couldn't come to my party the next night because he was leaving for Minnesota right after the reception.
I had the darndest time getting people for my party. All of a sudden I discovered Lorna McCartney was going to be a bridesmaid. I met her the last time I was at the point so I had to get a fellow for her & it was hard. Then Chuck said there were going to be 2 more couples there if I wanted to ask them! So what could I do?
It was so funny. I had read in the paper on the way home from N.Y. about the 1st double wedding which had ever been held at West Point and there was a picture of the two couples. Of course I never thought I'd meet them and here they were coming to my party. I had never met either of the two fellows although one looked familiar.
Sunday night I had a date with Bergere. Monday noon Mrs. Leopold had a picnic at Crystal Lake and Monday night I had my dinner party. I wore my black dress. It was cleaned fixed & looked nice. I didn't wear a thing on the dress - just pearls around my neck and I put some light blue delphinium in my hair. There were 18 for dinner and Phoebe came later. Her date was coming on the 8 o'clock train. We had lots of fun. We had a marvelous dinner. A new kind of chicken loaf with mushroom sauce, & blueberry muffins, broiled tomatoes on little pieces of toast, string beans & I think a fruit salad, for dessert we had raspberry ice in meringues which mother made.
Jack's sister Dolores was here. She is 18 & lots of fun. Jack is going to be married around Christmastime I think. I have decide definitely I want to be a librarian, so I work every morning in the library & I love it. Sometimes I get to take over the children's desk. They have a summer reading program where they give about 16 book reports & I listen to the reports and give thema star beside the name of their book when they finish.
Yesterday I worked for the Red Cross all afternoon sitting with Susie [?] Snyder in the bank building & getting donations for the Red Cross.
George Little had his foot operated on Monday. He shot himself in his foot, remember and they found it was infected[.]
lots of love,
Sal.Write soon!
P.S. Say hello to your family!