November 28, 1965
Dear Aunt Elner, I hope you are well. I am doing so much better. Of course, I still miss home, but I must say there is something really nice about being with people who are just like me. I have made many new friends from all over. One girl is all the way from South America. She signs in Spanish! How hilarious! We are both learning to ice skate at the same time and it is so much fun. When I come home for Christmas, I will show you the photos I took of the snow up here. I am attending church for the deaf every Sunday, and next week in drama class, we are doing the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet. And yours truly is playing Juliet. But please don’t tell Mother and Daddy. If I know them they will want to come and make me even more nervous than I will be.
Love,
Hanna Marie
P.S. Guess what? Next semester, I will be taking a class in ballroom dancing!
January 30, 1966
Dear Hanna Marie, I got your last letter. And, honey, I don’t want you to worry any more about your mother and daddy. Believe me, they are just fine. I have talked them out of moving up to Boston and taking a place near you. So you just do your lessons, have fun, and leave old Beatrice and Ander to me. You know me. I have my wily ways. Norma sends her love, and so do I. You better be careful up there in all that snow that you don’t catch triple p-new-monnia…or however you spell it.
Aunt Elner
P.S. Is there such a thing as a Boston bean? Is it different than a regular old bean? If so, bring me one, will you?
February 18, 1966
Dearest Aunt Elner, Thank you, thank you, a thousand times thank you! I love them both to pieces, but if they moved here, I know I would spend most of my time worrying whether they had things to do all day. When I get home this summer, I’m coming out to the farm and spending the night with you right away. I have soooo much to tell you. Love to Uncle Will and Norma, and Macky and Linda.
Love,
Me
Gene Nordstrom’s friend Cooter Calvert came into Still Meadows at a rather early age, due to prostate cancer.
He was happy to find that Gene was the same great guy, still full of enthusiasm, still interested in hearing all about what he had been up to. A lot had happened in the more than twenty years that Gene had been gone, and so the two of them had a lot of news to catch up on.
“After I got home, I married Thelma, and we have a daughter named Cathy. And, Gene, I started that newspaper, the one we always talked about.”
Gene was elated to hear it. “Good for you, Cooter. Good man. Did it do well?”
“Oh, yeah. And Momma is out at Happy Acres Nursing Home now…and you know Macky and Norma have a little girl named Linda.”
“Yeah, I knew that.”
“Let’s see…who else…Oh…and your aunt Elner is still going strong. Last I heard, she still had a bunch of cats.”
Gene laughed. “That figures. And Aunt Ida?”
“Oh, Lord, what can I say? Ida is Ida.” He laughed. “She writes a column for the newspaper now.”
“You’re kidding. What about?”
“Oh, you know. Just a lot of silly Garden Club stuff.”
They spent the rest of the time with just small talk. Gene wanted to know how the football team was doing. Things like that.
Mostly they joked around and talked about all the fun, crazy things they used to do.
Cooter said, “Do you remember all the movies we went to?”
“Oh, yes…we must have spent hours in that place.”
Cooter kept the conversation as light and as positive as he could. A lot of other things had happened in the world since Gene had been up at Still Meadows. He didn’t tell Gene that boys were now burning their draft cards and refusing to serve in the military. How could you tell that to someone who died fighting for his country?
—
MEANWHILE, LESTER SHINGLE WAS still on the alert for news. He kept waiting for someone to come up to Still Meadows and tell him that they had finally caught his killer, but so far, nobody had. Nobody was even talking about his murder. And in such a small town, you’d have thought it would have been a huge topic of conversation. As time went on, he began to wonder. Was she going to get away with it? Had there been no witnesses to the crime? The bowling alley parking lot was empty that night. Had they checked for blood on all the bowling balls? Had they checked for fingerprints? Of course, with so many people using the same ball, it might have been difficult. But still, she must have slipped up somehow, somewhere. It just didn’t seem right. A healthy young man cut down in his prime by a vengeful female, and nothing had been done.
1967
Hanna Marie Swensen had grown into a lovely young lady, slender with beautiful silky brown hair and big brown expressive eyes. She had a naturally sweet personality, had many friends, hearing and non-hearing alike, and was quite social. She had her mother’s sense of style and was always dressed in the best clothes. Even so, at the beginning of her senior year, when she wrote to her parents and told them about a wonderful young man she had met, it had come as somewhat of a surprise. Beatrice knew she had made a lot of friends, but she had never before mentioned a special boy. And, of course, Beatrice was excited. But at this point, she didn’t know if the young man was a deaf boy or not…or anything else really.
My Darling,
So happy to hear you are doing so well and still enjoying college life. Your friend Michael sounds like a nice person. Not to be a prying mother, but is he a hearing person?
Not that it matters, just wondering. If you like, your father and I would be happy to have him come and visit sometime. Anyhow, sweetie, remember your mother and daddy love you and miss you so much.
Mother
Hanna Marie’s father would have worded the letter somewhat differently. He would have said, “Bring this clown home, and let me get a good look at him.” Luckily, Beatrice was the one who wrote the letters.
But men are different than women on the subject of their daughters. When Linda Warren had started dating boys, Macky hadn’t liked any of them. As he told Norma, “No matter how polite they may seem, I was a boy myself, and I know what the little bastards are up to.”
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THE WHOLE TOWN’S TALKING
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by Mrs. Ida Jenkins