Dear Pearl,

The names you have suggested for the kittens are wonderful!  Fanny is naming her favorite - the smallest one with a lovely pinkish beige coat - Poppy.  She hasn't demonstrated a taste for mouse meat yet. She's awfully particular about her diet. . . only anchovies packed in oil, no turkey, pork sausage or catnip. Larkspur and Sweet William, on the other hand, are fast and fierce in their appreciation of mouse capades.  They are the biggest in the group, always hungry, always skulking around the cellar checking for traces of rodents.  Daisy, Petunia, and Lily seem to prefer chasing the sunbeams that ricochet off the Louis XVI mirrors in the library.  They leap and bat the air for hours on end until they are quite exhausted, then sleep in a heap curled around each other.  A very sweet sight, that, but not one that augers well for their mousing capabilities. And you, Pearl? Will you be joining us for the Ides of March fundraiser? Melba is in charge of the toga wrapping competition as usual.

I Remain as Always, Your Devoted Miss Blue

Dear Miss Blue,

What an innocent but mischief-making trio you tell about, Miss Blue. No Animals Allowed on the Tube there in London is truly a very good rule; guard dogs who might think they should protect the passengers from pickpockets and what would happen if even a little cuckoo bird, mischievous in his manner, began singing his warning song!  The Monclair twins - Sammy and John John - and Fanny,
filled with goodwill and hoping that the kittens would be happy and safe in the greenhouse among the plants and nature, was a noble thought. Although I was relieved to read of the plan to keep them with you; a fine reason to have cats running around the  house to pounce on the mice who are scampering about the kitchen for morsels to munch on.  I am sending you, Miss Blue, the names for the kittens: Poppy, Lily, Daisy, Petunia, Sweet William, and Larkspur.  I know the kittens will love their names and be very proud to solve all the mice problems in your house!

Sending love and greetings to you and Melba and Louise and Fanny.

Pearl

Dear Pearl,

The silliest thing, dear!  Fanny and the Montclair twins - Sammy and John John - started a terrible ruckus on the Tube yesterday.  The three of them had hatched a plan to smuggle the kittens Fronzie gave them into the Montclair's greenhouse just down the block from us. There, they thought, the kittens would live a sun-filled life among the Philodendrons and Boston ferns.  They each stashed two kittens under their jackets and made it all the way to Kensington Station before one peeked out of John John's collar and frightened a large woman standing next to him.  Her shrieks set in motion pure pandemonium!  The three children, their oblivious kittens, and a sympathetic passenger eventually arrived at my front door.  Melba was at the theater, but I had Louise make hot chocolates and tea for us and we had a very delightful afternoon.  We have decided to keep the kittens here as mousers.  The twins and Fanny have pledged to love them and take care of them for as long as they live and no matter where they go to school and marry, etc.  I'm quite sure the relationship will not, in fact, last that long, but it is quite invigorating to see their youthful passion and sincerity.  It remains to name the six little felines.  Any suggestions, dear?

I Remain as Always, Your Devoted Miss Blue

Dear Miss Blue,

How amazing, Miss Blue, that you mentioned the old fashioned doughnuts!  Just this very morning, right after having my second cup of coffee I suddenly yearned for a doughnut.  I never buy them at my neighborhood bakery; remembering the delicious homemade doughnuts I always made for the school picnic at the end of the school year. I have checked out my pantry to see if I have all of the ingredients to make the doughnuts; flour sugar nutmeg, cinnamon eggs milk and oil. The oil is for cooking the doughnuts; dropping 2 or 3 in the pot and watching the doughnuts become nice and brown, just like the ones in the stores only better!  And since I have everything to make the doughnuts I will this very day make the old fashioned doughnuts!  I'll save them for the next gathering down in the lobby. Coffee and doughnuts and all the news about the comings and goings in our neighborhood.

Love, Pearl

Remember the taffy pulls we used to have; buttering our hands and pulling the taffy until it was long and thin and dropping the taffy on the cutting board and cutting it into edible pieces 1/2 inch long.

xo pearl 

Dear Pearl,

The Highbottoms are completely appalled, but I am frankly excited by the new habit in the neighborhood of selling all sorts of comestibles from carts.  Fanny and Louise took to the streets with blackstrap molasses pulled toffee. Doris Dingle and her niece Sheila made popcorn balls wrapped in red cellophane.  But Beatrice and her grandmother Terese started a new trend here with their amazing homemade doughnuts!  Everyone wants them.  Terese says she is using an old recipe from her family that goes back to Tudor England - possibly as far back as Henry the VIII who binged on them in front of his unhappy wives and died fat.  Oh Pearl, isn't it getting close to the annual bake-off at the Lucky Shamrock Golf Club?  What category feels lucky to you this year?  Edible White Things was such a success for you with those Marshmallow Bat Puffs in the aughts.  Could anything top that?

I Remain as Always, Your Devoted Miss Blue

Dear Miss Blue,

Hawaiian music is melodious and easy to sing especially when accompanied by the ukulele. My favorite song was called "I Wanna' go Back to my Little Grass Shack in Kealakuh Hawaii."  The ukulele was a beautiful instrument for this song.  On the same record side was "Under the Ukulele Tree."  So sitting on the floor in front of the victrola, we would just love listening and singing along.  
I wonder what the lovely Hawaiian girl chose to sing? I think she probably sang both songs that I mentioned here in my letter.

I wish I had a ukulele, Miss Blue.  What fun it would be to sing and strum along on the ukulele and harmonize the Hawaiian tunes!

Love from Pearl

Dear Pearl,

Before there was Antoinette, Pearl, there was that beautiful Hawaiian girl who played a ukulele that had once been owned by Queen Lili'uokalani.  There were rumors she had come by it under less than honorable circumstances. . . But you and I always wanted to believe the best of everybody and, anyways, we simple loved the sounds she could get out if!  Remember the Chinese gentleman who came to her every performance? He begged her to marry him and live over the tea shop.  But she dreamed of returning to Hawaii someday and she finally did.  I still get postcards from her.  Do you too, dear?

I Remain as Always, Your Devoted Miss Blue

                                                  

Dear Miss Blue,

Your letter brought back memories of my friend Antoinette, playing her Ukulele on the stage of our school.  It is an unusual instrument and was never accepted as part of the major Symphony Orchestras of the time.  Antoinette was heartbroken when she found this out, Miss Blue.  She had practiced every day after school and everyone around just loved hearing her tunes and she had hoped to play for very important persons. I felt her sorrow.  I always stopped whatever I was doing to stand beside her and tap my foot to the rhythm. Everyone shouted out More,More, so Antoinette played the song that made the Ukulele famous in the 1920's "Under the Ukulele Tree." We children loved to play the record on our Victrola. Little Fronzie and her Ukulele makes me wish I had a Ukulele these days. We would harmonize "Under the Ukulele Tree."

It is true, Miss Blue, that dogs are very musical and that is why they howl sometimes.  Little Fronzie and her Ukulele just made Wolfgang so happy he had to howl!

Love from your friend Pearl

Dear Pearl,

For her unit on Agrarian Societies, Fanny has been spending weekends with the nicest country folk - the Petrushkas.  Their little girl, Fronzie, is a complete delight.  She plays the banjo and harmonizes with her dog Wolfgang.  They are quite a team!  Fanny says they sing Old Susannah with such flair - Wolfgang sits up and howls at the refrain -  it makes her hair stand up.  She wants Melba to accompany her out to the farm at least once.  But Melba is such a snob.  She swears she will die without shopping and theater in her day, and sends Fannie out alone every Friday, Brownie camera and clean overalls neatly packed.  Banjos, Pearl!  Didn't we have a friend who could play one?

I Remain As Always, Your Devoted Miss Blue

Dear Miss Blue,

All the small - very, very small - tiny creatures that sneak around making trouble in our lives!  That's all they can do, poor things, but I am not at all sympathetic to their plight.  I look around for my fly swatter  (I keep one or two hanging from little hooks in every room) and I always have my fly swatter with the longest handle when I am outdoors so that I can chase the winged bees and mosquitos before 
they bite the little children as they play happily in their backyards. I haven't been bitten by the Venus Flytrap since that dramatic time in the Kew Gardens, Miss Blue. I might just call the Department of Agriculture and Insect Identification to ask if the dreadful Venus Flytrap has been seen here. I hope not!!

Limes have always been a favorite fruit of mine, even over lemons, and I will be serving my own recipe of Key Lime Pie to several members of the Board this afternoon. I know they will love it and of course talk about how delicious it is to their friends and neighbors.  Still snow here, Miss Blue, but snow is beautiful and fun when snowshoeing. . . .

Love, Pearl 

Dear Pearl,

A snowstorm has blanketed the city, Pearl, and we are completely housebound until the Chivalrous Shovelers Brigade gets to our side of Kew's Conservatory.  You remember Kew's, don't you Pearl?  On our visit there, you were bitten by the Venus Flytrap brought back from the rainforest by Queen Victoria's Second* South American Expedition.  You were so brave when the medics pulled apart the mean little plant's jaws and rinsed the digestive juices off your index finger!  Say, do you still have that little scar?  I hope your weather is better on the other side of the ocean. . .

I Remain, as Always, Your Devoted Miss Blue

*Queen Victoria's First South American Expedition was cut short by an outbreak of scurvy that broke out after the rats ate all the limes stowed on board to prevent said disease.  The news reports at the time noticed that the rats were particularly sleek and peppy when the weak and staggering crew finally made it back to port.

Dear Pearl,

We are feeling quite odd over here as we watch the primaries unfold in your strange little state of Iowa. Please keep us posted as things develop and know that if your country DOES go to the dogs, you are most welcome to join us over here.  

I Remain As Always, Your Devoted Miss Blue