Bessie B. Nesbit
Mount Holyoke College
South Hadley, Mass.Wed. Feb. 21, 1940
Dear Mama & Papa,
Hello! I just got your letter & was so glad to receive it. The walking is quite slippery here this morning but I think that the bright sun will soon melt the ice on the side walks. Believe it or not, it snowed again last night. I enjoyed the concert very much. The pianists kept together marvelously. The man & woman who are married are quite romantic. The lady was very attractive. They played The Bee which I like so much plus some other pieces with which I am only vaguely familiar.
Speaking about the walking being slippery, a very funny thing happened to me the other day. Lissa, the crippled girl, works in P.O. & had then became [sic] acquainted with Mr. Graften of the history department. Mr. Graften is unattached, rather nice looking, and has a lovely English accent. Well when we went to the Midway (Fair) Mr. Graften passed the time of day with Lissa who failed to introduce us to Mr. Graften. Since then we have all teased Lissa about him & about his English accent. We have even been dropping our H's in conversation.
Well to make a long story short, I slipped and sat down on the slightly inclined sidewalk leading to Skinner. Mr. Graften was coming up the hill & when he saw me fall, he exclaimed "Oh dear" with a charming English accent. I was so amazed at that Ejactulation [sic] that I started to laugh. When I had picked myself up, he asked if I was all right. I replied that I was but that it was quite slippery. I suppose one really can't appreciate this if he didn't experience this. But it was so funny to hear a person say "Oh Dear" as you fell down.
My check hasn't come from the Board of Education yet. Do you think I should do something about it?
I think it is best for me to wait for next week end to come home. We are just starting to read the Argonauticus in Myth-.
I am enclosing the words of a song which Sally recited to me the other day. Perhaps I should have kept it for father's day, but I couldn't resist sending it now.
Here also it [sic] an amazing item. We were studying Proverbs this week in Religion & Dr. Adams was referring to certain good phrases here & there. Then he said with a twinkle in his eye "Perhaps I should [not] read this to a class of young ladies" & proceeded to read Proverbs 11:22. [NIV: "Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion."]
Lotions of love,
BessieF is for the funny face on father.
A is for the alcohol he drinks
T is for the things he throws at mother
H is for his heart as black as ink
E is for the empies in the cellar
R spells rum & also rock & rhy [sic]
Put them all together they spell father
The guy who drank the brewery dry.