friday, january 28, 1944

dearest kitty,

in recent weeks i've developed a great liking for family trees and the genealogical tables of royal families. i've come to the conclusion that once you begin your search, you have to keep digging deeper and deeper into the past, which leads you to even more interesting discoveries.

although i'm extremely diligent when it comes to my schoolwork and can pretty much follow the bbc home service on the radio, i still spend many of my sundays sorting out and looking over my movie-star collection, which has grown to a very respectable size. mr. kugler makes me happy every monday by bringing me a copy of cinema & theater magazine. the less worldly members of our household often refer to this small indulgence as a waste of money, yet they never fail to be surprised at how accurately i can list the actors in any given movie, even after a year. bep, who often goes to the movies with her boyfriend on her day off, tells me on

saturday the name of the show they're going to see, and i then proceed to rattle off the names of the leading actors and actresses and the reviews. moms recently remarked ; that i wouldn't need to go to the movies later on, because !

i know all the plots, the names of the stars and the reviews by heart.

whenever i come sailing in with a new hairstyle, i i can read the disapproval on their faces, and i can be sure someone will ask which movie star i'm trying to imitate. my reply, that it's my own invention, is greeted with ~ skepticism. as for the hairdo, it doesn't hold its set for ~ more than half an hour. by that time i'm so sick and tired i of their remarks that i race to the bathroom and restore my hair to its normal mass of curls.

yours, anne