A Really Exciting Day

After the mild ambiguous scolding from Lady Darley in her last letter, I responded with a letter on tape, interspersed with a few pop hits, starting with The Breakfast Club's "Right On Track."

Her next letter arrived in early June of 1989, dated June 2nd.

Dear Chris,
Hello, thanks a lot for your tape, or should I say tape/letter. It was nice listening to it, and I really enjoyed it, even though I did listen to it in three parts.

Was I long-winded or her just short on spare moments?

Well today I had a really exciting day. To be honest, it wasn't that exciting, it was tiring. I must of walked all over Derby and even then I didn't get everything I wanted to. I came home without all my shoes. I only have about one pair because all the others have holes in or have stretched alot.

I can't tell if she went on a shopping expedition or a hiking expedition. Probably both.

You really did sound very sure about what you want out of a relationship with your girlfriend when you find her. I hope that everything turns out how you want it to. That when you found this girl, I hope she has the qualities you want. So good luck.

About my relationship with [Arthur]. I really guess we have a love-hate relationship. A lot of my friends say this about our relationship, "It's all love hate. We can't live with each other, but we can't live with[out] each other." I guess it's kind of true to life, but I don't like admitting it.

No, of course not. It's not easy admitting you still have a relationship with a boy who has slapped you around and will probably continue to do so.

Also about my relationship with [your friend], I never actually know what to think. One minute she is writing back very quickly and then she doesn't write for weeks. I think we've been writing for about 11 months, and I've had about seven letters, which isn't bad I suppose, but I just thought never mind, you explained to me what she was like and I suppose I'll just have to understand her situation.

I can't actually remember whether I told you about about my mum. She comes from Liverpool, which really is very Swedish. I supposed that's why I may have made such a big deal about Hillsborough because of my mum coming from Liverpool. We took a lot of notice about it and was very upset because Mum feels she really is a part of Liverpool.

And here I was, about to move from Kansas City to St. Louis. What notice would I take?

Well about debate in England. At our school we only have debate once a year. We have a competition, where people speak for our house on a subject. Even if they don't agree with the point. But our house has certain people who always do it and I never get a chance.

Here's where I think I gave her a sample of humourous reading I did as part of my speech team.

Well, thank you for the situation you performed for me on the tape. You really are very good and I could picture the situation happening in my mind. I play it to my mum before we went out to Derby shopping. She thought you were good, too, and she laughed when I told her what you said about not having an accent. I really think you have a nice accent. But to me, you seem to have a stronger accent than Kate has. Thank you for the comment about my accent, but everybody here in England always laughs at my accent because it is so typical of my area.

I have long believed that a midwestern accent, the one that TV newscasters are groomed to have, is the lack of any accent. But when I took my first job in Texas, some people thought I had a Missouri accent. Some people in St. Louis have a strong accent, evident every time they talk about "Interstate fardy-far."

My friend let me listen to some tapes Lady Darley had sent to her, and I made the mistake -- or courtesy -- of disclosing it. Lady Darley did not mince words...

When I first heard that you had listened to my tapes, I was shocked, embarrassed and maybe a little angry. I was shocked because I didn't think she'd give them to you, and embarrassed because I couldn't actually remember what I'd been talking about. Angry because I thought you would've acked me first.

Which I should have. Mea culpa.

Did I tell you about my holiday? Well, I go in about five weeks. I'm actually looking forward to it. I'm counting the days in a way. But before my holidays, a lot of things happen. I have exams which I'm trying to revise my subjects. I may take a lot of time to write back so I though I'd explain first. Well I've also got my work experience from July 1st till the 7th. So I have a really busy six weeks ahead of me.

My sister has been having a lot of trouble with [Alex]. He keeps on tell her that they thought it was too serious. But my sister actually tried to make him keep going out with her because of pity. But when it didn't work she decided it would be better if they decided to ring each other once a week and see each other once a week. I hope that this will solve the problem and they will be all right. But for some reason I feel that it will happen again soon. But I agree with [Rose], my sister, that two years of her life is a lot just to throw away.

She closes with some encouragement.

Well, I wish you lots of lock when you go to St. Louis. I hope you make lots of friends and get on well in the life you want to build for yourself. I also hope that when you go there you pass on your address to me because I think it would be very disappointing for us all to lose touch. Maybe you could write to [your friend] as well. Maybe you could tell me about her and some other of your friends. To me, it always seems to be me writing to you about my friends. Not you about yours.

I never felt comfortable writing about my (few) friends to a third party. It always felt like gossip. I didn't do gossip in high school. I still don't do it now, and thus I'm always the last to know every secret that has been floating around the workplace for a "fortnight," as Lady Darley might say.

Oh yes, so before I go, please can you sent me a recent photograph of yourself. I think I have sent you another photo of me. So you can send me one back if you want to.

Thank you for your tape. I liked it.

Love,
[Lady Darley]