Dear Bessie,Here I am out of ink and studying hard - How can I be studying hard when I'm writing to you - Well, anyway - So many things have happened that I don't know what to tell you about. I suppose you know that Jo is being married in Chicago the 28th of December and I am going to be there. A few weeks ago two of my friends and I planned to go to Chicago and see "Brigolette" and "Life with Father." We were all going to stay at different places and I was going to stay with Aunt Ruth. My cousin Miller Brooke was going to be in Chicago on an inspection tour with his engineering class. Well - - the long & short of it is that - I didn't go - I woke up Friday morning with a bad sinus cold and I couldn't stir out of bed. And to make matters worse, Iowa beat Notre Dame and we declared a holiday that following Monday. When I saw Miller this week-end he told me about all the joy I had missed and how he was going to take me to the Aragon and how Aunt Ruth took him to Don Giovanni - He had me practically in tears by the time he was through, I was tearing my hair, and gnashing my teeth at a great rate.
I made up for all this last week-end which in our good republican state was Thanksgiving[.] Of course the darn school wouldn't let us have Friday as a holiday also, so I commuted 80 miles. One of the girls who lives in my house is from Brooklyn and was kinda homesick, so I invited her home for Thanksgiving. My cousin Ned Disque who is at Waterloo took us home Wednesday night. He got here about 5:30 P.M. and we arrived at the Poor house about a quarter after seven. Mother and Dad were going out, so Helen and I ate dinner alone. After dinner, Ned called up and asked us if we would like to go to the Fireman's Ball, so we dived into our clothes and I yanked Ed out of the theatre. He was the only person I could think of to get and I thought it would be more fun with two fellows - you know. So we went to the dance & had a riot. We didn't get to bed until about three.
Thanksgiving, Mother had a family dinner and it was marvelous. We had a huge turkey and all the trimmings[.] We called Ginny up, and talked to her only so many people said hello that no body could say very much. Ginny had George Hill over for dinner. Ned took us back Thursday night & we slept practically all the way. Friday I had to do a paper and I finished it about five minutes before we started home Saturday noon. Ed took Helen down and I went with some other people. Saturday night we went to a formal dinner dance at the country club. I wore my red formal and wore a gardenia in my hair. Oh, we had a jolly time. Ed wore a tux, I think, for the first time in his life, only the dope would chew gum right in front of the E-light of Burlington. There are sixteen days until vacation and I can't wait for the holidays.
Pat Churchill is being married the 28th of December, the first one of us to be married, but I won't be able to go to her wedding because of Jo.
The fellows are all stinkers -
Write soon & I mean it! How did you like the election.
lots of love,
Sal.