4/27/39
Baby Girl:
Gee, that was a hell of a letter I wrote you yesterday afternoon! After I ate my supper, I felt a lot better.
I shall write to Dr. Maynard of Brooklyn, whom the Aikens recommended to me, and try to make an appointment sometime in the next month. Mrs. Aiken says to see him some Saturday morning and stop by Marthasville for the week-end on the way home. This will kill two birds with one stone.
I bought the Aikens a couple of bucks worth of flowers the last time I was there, and they were well received. Since Herman drove me up, I saved almost that much on train fare, so I about came out even.
Baby girl, I am going around in circles. There is an awful lot for me to learn. I positively must finish up that college education, for I am lost without some of the knowledge of the senior year. Then it is essential that I get a master’s within the next ten years.
I want you rather terrifically, for a number of reasons. I have only been here two months and I am tired of the entire set-up already. If I had a normal home life with you, I wouldn’t reach this stage for a couple of years. Last night was another awake most of the night. It rather infuriates me. When I can get a liberal supply of exercise, such does not occur from one month to the next.
The work today went a little better. I studied last night but didn’t learn much. I shall take another crack at it this evening if I get down to brass tacks before bedtime.
I am reading Guns of Burgoyne, a new historical novel. Thus far, 38 pages, it has been most interesting.
Speaking of books, what is the name of the book that I bought in NYC last summer by Benchley? Don’t laugh, but I think I have gone out and bought another copy of the same! Darling, I need you for things like that too.
My last short story is the best by far of anything that I have attempted. I am going to mail it Saturday to the Good Housekeeping. Darling, pray for luck this trip, for the financial situation is going to be our biggest problem for the next couple of months. I want to get both of us out of debt and a little ahead before we go ahead.
It all goes to show you. I was going to be selfish tonight and only write you one page. That’s why I just had to get up and get a second one. And I’ll bet I have to get up and get a third one also.
The enclosed pamphlet will answer a lot of questions which people have been asking me for years. It should be mildly interesting, since it is inside information on a new business.
These week-ends with the Aikens excite a most violent reaction in me. Darling, the more I think of it, the more I realize that someday I shall have to have a place out in the country where I can work and not mess around with all the dirt and grime of city life. That breaks down into making a profession of writing. Perhaps I can work in consulting and engineering as Aiken does. Precious, that should be an ideal situation if we can arrange it. They are only 40 minutes from New York, and yet they are back in the mountains and have deer in their backyard in the winter! Big dreams, precious, but if we hit the ball for the next ten years, we can make them come true.
Darling, and another thing. I am through with this last story, and have been for a couple of days. And yet it will be Saturday or next week before I send it to anyone. It takes me so damn long to turn out perfect typing copy that by the time I finish the final draft, I am so tired of the story that I can’t even write letters to editors about it. Gee, darling, you’re surely getting yourself into a tough job.
Why the heck should I think of it now. Let’s go to a dance tonight. I think that would be great sport. Maybe we could have some fun between numbers too, although the weather is a little too chilly for moonlight strolls.
Betty, pet waitress where I eat, says to tell the girl out west that I looked nice tonight. Dragged out the gray suit and summer ties.
Your clothes sound good. Visions of that joint out in the Watchung Mountains pop up again.
Speaking of Betty, there was a quite a stir a couple of evenings back. I thought I would die laughing. The gang out the tea room have all adopted a material attitude towards me. One of their steady customers was in a couple of evenings ago and had apparently never gotten a good look at the half-man-half-dog from Chicago. This she proceeded to do, all unknown to me. Betty, apparently knowing the girl quite well and there being very few people in, went over and gave her hell for trying to flirt with me, politely informing the kid that I was taken by a very cute girl from Chicago! Well, precious, your interests are being looked out for even out here.
Gee, I knew I couldn’t stop at two pages.
Did you get to talk to the boy wonder at Hartford?* Speaking of which, he bought a pair of gray suede crepe-soled shoes just before he came down here, and I gave him hell for it, telling him, as is true, that they are hot as hell in the summer. The joker lies in the fact that I think I shall buy a pair for myself this Saturday, for they will last well, and will go with this gray suit. When I get some wash suits this summer, they shall all be gray. In spite of the old story that I look well in brown, the blue and the gray make me look more alive and less like a ghost. Then the shoes will go with that also. I shall probably forget white shoes, as I have a pair here which will do if the occasion is urgent, but aren’t worth cleaning up otherwise.
Nertz. I have a short story that I want to write and an article on graphs. Then on top of that, I have to mail this and don’t even know where to get stamps. The weather looks good, and I hope you will get it sometime tomorrow.
Well, darling, I’m still waiting for you, and I hope that it doesn’t have to continue for too much longer. You may have to put up with a lot of irregularity the first couple of years, but that is better than having to put up with that plus being apart. At least, I think so.
Thank Maw Huntoon for the birthday card, and tell her I will write as soon as I get a chance. It was really from the entire gang, so thank the bunch of them via Maw. Incidentally, don’t mention that I suggested it, but in your big sisterly way, get JH* to do a little financial budgeting. I’m afraid that maybe his lack of parental restraint on the finances may not do him much good after a while. He should be able to save roughly $80 per month, minus payments on the car. This allows him a liberal beer expense or what have you.
Goodnight, Baby. Our first tough year is almost gone. The next will be hard, but I doubt if it will be as hard as the first one was.
Love, your husband, Cy.
*Johny Huntoon