Going Deeper

Lady Darley devotes a lot of this letter to relationships -- not just hers, but mine. I told her how my brother and I ended up working at the same place that summer: Six Flags Over Mid-America.

I guess it would be pretty uneasy for you having your brother working at the same place. Don't you get on well with him? My sister and I get on well at times, but I think it stems from when we were little and lived somewhere there wasn't many other children and we had to play together? How many years are there between you and he anyway? There are two years and nine months between the two of us, so I guess as we get old we'll get closer, I guess the same will happen to you and your brother.

That's what happened. We grew up. But we can't change the four-year gap between our ages.

My sister and I have worked at the same restaurant a few times. She can get a little overbearing at times demanding I do things her way. But my parents had told me not to embarrass her by saying no at the restaurant as they really are a back biting bunch and would have love to see us have a girly squabble.. But I just gritted my teeth and went with the flow. Now I'm really nervous about going back on Sunday when she's not there to give a bit of moral support. But I guess we all have to do these kind of things!!!

I was extremely spooked last week when I was at work because this guy walked in who was the spitting image of that photo you sent me a while ago of yourself, and I mean the spitting image. I thought hey this is so odd, but I thought hey its just a coincidence, but believe me when he opened his mouth and an American accent flew out I thought wow this is odd. But I found out that his name was Mark and he was from Florida so I'm just writing to tell you that you have a complete double who lived in Florida, he was even at college in California doing a journalism and public relations degree -- weird or what. I told him that I had a penfriend in St. Louis who was like his total double, he thought it was totally amazing.

Perhaps he's wearing kilts and tricorn hats every so often now, too.

I should be going to college in September, in a way I'm looking forward to it, doing everything that I do at home in my hobbies full time. I'd hopefully be doing either of two degrees:

Business Studies and Media Relations
Writing, Theoretical Studies of Photography in the Media, and Heritage and History.

Two degrees? I count at least five...

I would have been really happy if I could have gone to college with all my old friends, I find it really hard to make new friends as I find that a lot of people can't cope with my strong beliefs and attitudes that can annoy people - but it's just me, and I'm worried that some people may find it a little off putting and I'll end up walking the halls on my own. I also have applied to a college of higher education that I could get lower grades for, I could get in purely on my GCSE results. This really is only a back up, but my Mum said she would rather I did something than waste all my work. I guess she has a point but I would be really upset if I don't get my grades after all the work I put in. So keep your fingers crossed. I will be living at home for the first year if I go to the one where I can do Writing. I thought it would be good that way so that I can establish my friends and we could probably share in the second year. What do you reckon to living away from home, it was only your first year wasn't it?

I lived in the Mizzou dorms for all four years, two with roommates and two on my own. I liked being able to walk to classes -- or bike to them in decent weather. I didn't have a car until my senior year. I liked having the dorm cafeteria, being somebody who enjoys eating more than cooking. At Hatch Hall, we also had ice cream from the ag school's plant just down the street.

You really sound as though you've been enjoying college! But we all have to work like mad to get what we want, don't you think! I should be working like mad once I come back off my holiday.

Now to tell you about my holiday, I'm going to Corfu with a friend of mine and her sister. It should be fun but to tell you the truth I've never been so off something in the whole of my life. [Redacted], the girl I was going with and I were friends a couple of years ago. She left to get a job after GCSE's and I sat for my A levels, and as you can imagine we grew apart a bit, but I guess it should be fun, two weeks in the sun with nothing to do but lounge around and get a suntan or totter through little streets. I am looking forward to the idea of going, but I just really don't know. Oh I guess I'll get over it. I'm just feeling a little anti social after spending all that time over the last three months or so revising like crazy.

At this point, the letter inexplicably goes from typewritten to handwritten and changes subjects from vacation to a current event: the aftermath of the L.A. riots.

I was really upset about the 'Rodney King Riots,' they were all over the news. I was more upset about the violence the blacks inflicted on white people than the blacks' situation. All news reporters probably showed when a gang of riot police pulled a white guy out of a truck and almost beat him unconscious. I did feel for their situation but I think that they did more harm than good. But I do think that the media, by doing such graphic reports did get the picture home to the people of the world. It really annoys me when people stagg off the press because they just have a job to do, to inform the general public about events that they have a right to know about.

Lady Darley's word usage here is slightly misleading, but I think by "riot police" she's referring to the people who beat Reginald Denny, who weren't police at all. Confusion, I gather.

Have you heard about all the scandal with the British press due to an author writing a book about the private life of Princess Diana? I don't actually know how you feel about royal people and our royal family, but the American people I met whilst on holiday were really proud of the British Royal Family. There has been a lot of controversy about the book 'The Private Life Of Princess Diana' by Andrew Morton. The guy came under a lot of criticisms for going to her private friends to find out what life is like with Prince Charles. It's been all over the newspapers about this woman called Camilla Parker Bowles who is supposed to be his girlfriend. I think he must be a real egotistical pig. He's obviously not given her any emotional support since they married and how on earth was she supposed to cope. He would have been brought up to accept a life where he wasn't allowed to do much in case the press picked up on it. He must have been really hard to live with.

I gather I must have asked about the stereotype of the "Ugly American..."

Americans aren't really that arrogant in comparison to the English. They aren't arrogant at all if you compare my generation of Americans to the English. I was very much the same to everyone in Kansas City, I don't really think that there was much of a difference between us. I think it was partly to do with personality. [Your Raytown friend] was far more outgoing than I was naturally, it's nothing to do with culture. I think that's the old stereotypical idea the stiff upper lip English men. But it may be true for an older generation but not for teenagers I don't think.

She moves on to movies...

I don't really think a great lot of the so-called new releases for the summer. I was frantically bored with the first Batman. In some ways I thought it was too predictable. One film I have seen recently which I was quite impressed with 'Point Break' with Patrick Swazye and Kenau Reeves. It has some absolutely amazing surfing scenes in it. Other than that I've not seen anything really good. I did see a real bummer of a film about a month ago called 'Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.' It was full of sentimental clap trap.

And still this letter goes on. In the third and final part, she talks about America once more, the annoying indulgences of people her age, and turning 18.