SC0103_Lesnett_1944-10-07

October 7, 1944

Dear Mother and Daddy,

Well Saturday night turned out all right I guess. The boys didn't arrive until 10:30 which made me a little mad and I let them know that I didn't like it very well. But after I'd let them understand that I didn't expect to have it happen again we went to the dance. I hope I was tactful about the situation. We went to three dances here on campus. I just wish you could have seen the car. The only thing it could boast of was four wheels. The only head lights it had was a flashlight attached to one of the head light sockets. There really wasn't any danger though of somebody running into the car because it made so much noise you couldn't possibly have not heard it and anyway we only had to drive about two blocks. We really had a very nice time at the dance and I hope Mary Ellen liked Dick, I think that she did - she looked awfully cute anyway. I had a rather embarrasing situation though. When we were coming

home, Bob Roantree's car was parked in front of Dick's and George's and was stalled so we had to push them. He was there with some old flame. I tried to just quietly disappear.

Last Sunday we had a big barbecue for the whole campus. It was lots of fun and they always have the best food at barbecues. I met a lot of new people too, but I don't particularly care, they were very convenient though because Bob kept trying to talk to me but couldn't get a chance. I think he was rather impressed. I hope so. Afterwards though I went to the movies they have here for the students on Sunday nights with him. The movie was [Tunga Dein?].

Everyone here is very enthusiastic about the election, so am I. I've decided now that I am definitely for Dewey. I've been having discussions with everybody about it and something Mrs. Belenky said made me very convinced. I've decided that if Roosevelt wins the election, as he probably will, we will be proving to the rest of the world that a democracy

is not a workable government, because in a democracy it is the form of government and not the men in the government which are important. By electing Roosevelt again they are saying that he is too indispensable to be removed now. In a democracy there should not be any man so indispensable that he can't be removed at any time, if there is a man so indispensable then the government is no longer a democracy- and I'm awfully afraid American democracy is at an end. I hope you can understand what I mean, I can't express it very clearly.

I got my Spanish mid-term back yesterday and I got an A- on it. I got an A- on the other Spanish test too, so maybe if I keep it up I can get an A- in the course. I am determined to keep up my B average. I'm now reading a very enlightening book The Idea of Progress in the hopes that it will help me somewhere. Doesn't it sound scholarly, well it is, too much so, I'm afraid for me.

Just so you won't be too surprised or so that you will recognize me when I come home, I think I'd better warn you about my hair. It looks like it did when I was five years old- I'll draw a picture.

It really isn't my fault that it looks that way. But that is the way Ruth [Nyswander's?] hair is - only it looks cute on her. She wanted someone else to wear their hair that way so after two weeks of coaxing me I finally cut it. Now I feel like a monk on a medieval vassal.

I hope you like the idea of the formal all right. I'm certainly crazy about it and I know I'll stay that way because it's different from any of the others I've had, and anyway it maks me look tall and slender. You know I'd love anything forever if it made me look slender.

I must go and read my scholarly book now.

Love to all, Mary