My dear, darling Patricia:
My favorite dish of eyes-cream! You are still the most wholly beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes on – and your voice is pure music! Much as I love my records and all manner of music – when I see you I think of you, I don’t need to play them. But when several days must pass before I see or hear you again, then the music from my records fills a void and relieves a loneliness that otherwise could grow to overwhelming proportions. All my life – since I was a little child, I have had a seemingly insatiable hunger for beauty of all kinds, for music, for intellectual satisfactions and for human kindness and compassion – and now, here you are – the embodiment of all of these – with or in such an abundance that you can let me have a share and yet be able to make them freely available to the young people to whom you are attracted as they are to you – and to all those others of various ages whom you call (rightly) “beautiful people”, the [?], the [?], and the others who pour out the warmth of their personalities in the stimulating goodness that sustains mankind.
I watched you this morning with Leon and thought “How wonderful it is that he has you for an older sister. He needs someone like you to take him out of the intensity of home life and help him to grow, [Page 2]to be a beacon of love and cheerfulness, a guide and a source of strength to look up to. Without these – as of course you know completely, he could easily become a lost soul. Your mom, good as she is – and you know how I esteem her, pours most of her affection on the “little ones” and depends on Leon and Connie, not only to see after their own development but also to help her in innumerable ways, and bless their souls, they both came through, but without you, they might not be able to.
Every day I am thankful for the good fortune that gave me the chance to know you and establish with you a wholesome and proper bond of affection that I can defend to anyone. I feel that it is maturing into a bond that will endure permanently. It is greater good fortune than any man could expect, so all I can do is to look upon it and on you as gifts from Heaven – the beauty and the music in my soul.
The two clippings enclosed are “incidental” (there’s that word again in another context) the one about the Lawyer’s trouble merely shows that, regarding the “weed”, though some psychologists, medics and sociologists think its effects are over rated, it still is illegal to have in one’s possession or to use. And if your “breaking” with Sylvia has served any purpose for her (without question it has for you) it will be that she may become really alerted to the fact that she may have been playing with fire, which she can not afford to do. She is a likeable girl, who as you say needs marriage and the married love that goes with it. Perhaps you’ve helped her on the road to its attainment.
The other is for contrast. The young lady in the white outfit facing [Page 3] east is some kind of a “model” for a fashion show, but she pales to insignificance in comparison with Patricia Dee! That was my instant reaction when I saw the picture.
Now – since I’ve got on to the third sheet of paper in spite of myself (I’m writing large today – it means I’m feeling good), do let me help some more with the German in your songs, I much enjoyed the little session after 17 West the other evening. I’ll write out for you a guide to the pronunciation of the more difficult sounds such as the umlauts and the ch sounds. They will help speed your practice and increase your assurance.
And many thanks for sharing your thought and feeling toward Ron you with me. He seems as fundamentally sound and genuine as one could ask and obviously is the prize of the lot of young men whom you’ve met in the [?] club. Such relations as you suggest are beautiful, as you say. May they continue that way. And I hope always to deserve the trust that will allow you to share them with me. When one has a warm and enriching relationship he always wants to share it, but too often he must keep it concealed for lack of a sharer whom he can trust.
Now, can we, or may we have a later dinner date this week, if it falls on Tuesday? The Las Lomitas School people want a meeting at 4:00 to plan a commemorative service for Neva and to dedicate (plan for) the memorial amphitheatre that is being named after her. The meeting will probably not exceed an hour or an hour and half at the most – so I can be back in San Jose by 6:00 or 6:30. If you want to go to dinner on Wed. or Thurs. instead, let me know right away. I’m holding up an agreement for Wed. evening until I hear from you. In any case let me know after your class Monday PM. Phone me. Love, Carl.
Dr. Carl Duncan and Patricia Whiting Collection (SJSU)
